


Collision

by Aikawa_Akihiko



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Dubious Consent, Forced Bonding, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, Mates, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-03-06 19:54:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13418493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aikawa_Akihiko/pseuds/Aikawa_Akihiko
Summary: Inuyasha finds out he is an uke. Sesshoumaru can not control his heat any longer. Against both their wishes they are brought together and have to deal with the consequences of their union.Dub-con, Mpreg, violence. Starts out dark but wont be for long





	1. Collision

**Chapter one- Collision**

 

Inuyasha pounced on the unsuspecting pheasant, hopping silently from the tree branch above to where it had been feeding on the ground.

 

“All right, Inuyasha!” clapped the little red kitsune from where he remained seated in the tree.

 

“It was `cause you kept your trap shut this time, right?” Inuyasha called up reproachfully while snapping the flailing bird's neck.

 

“Right! I was real quiet this time,” Shippo puffed out his chest proudly. The last few times Inuyasha had taken him along to hunt, he had grown exasperated in boredom, scaring away any potential prey with noisy games or whispering questions to the hunting inu.

 

The little kitsune jumped down from the branch when the hanyo sat on a nearby boulder and scampered beside him. He watched avidly as the hanyo plucked the bright multi-colored plumage from the limp bird, salivating in anticipation. They had not come across a bird in a long while! It would be a nice change from fish. Fish were one of the few things Inuyasha had successfully taught him to catch on his own so far, and as he had scared away all of the prey when they had gone hunting, it was the only thing they had been able to catch.

 

Shippo was so excited to be finally learning how to hunt and was glad that Inuyasha was around to show him how. Inuyasha had always said, before Kagome had left, that she babied him too much. Shippo was not too sure about that. He had loved being cuddled by Kagome. It had been almost like being with his mother. He missed her terribly since she left to go back to her own era.

 

He was not too sad, however. He still had Sango, Miroku, and Kirara, though they did not travel with him and Inuyasha anymore. They had settled with Kohaku in the old taija village once they had married and were working to rebuild it and start a family. Kaede-baba was still around to visit, as well, and Shippo was not worried about her being lonely, now that she had taken in Sesshoumaru's human girl, Rin.

 

It was ok, though, that they chose to settle down. It was kind of nice to be out here and alone with Inuyasha. They got along pretty well without the strain that being among humans seemed to have put on their relationship. Out here, Inuyasha was the alpha, his dominance unchallenged by anyone else and lessening the confusion resulting from fluctuating pack rank. Because of this, they had been able to grow to care for each other as family. Inuyasha cared for, protected, fed, and taught Shippo the ways of the canine youkai, and Shippo treated him with the respect deserving of a father figure.

 

Inuyasha tore off a lean leg from the carcass of the pheasant.  _Damn, birds! Stupid feathers make `em look so much bigger than they actually are_ , he thought grumpily. This one was a tough old bird and the little kitsune would not have the bite power to tear the flesh from the bone. Resigned to having to feed the kit, he bit into the sinewy meat, biting off a small chunk and handing it to the waiting youngster before biting off a chunk for himself.

 

They ate in silence, well Inuyasha ate in silence, Shippo ate noisily, slurping up the warm blood and juices and humming his pleasure. The sounds of singing cicadas and squawking birds hidden in the tall grasses of the open field combined to create a symphony of music that relaxed the high strung and increasingly agitated hanyo.

 

Where the soothing melody of the wild had calmed him, a sniff of a familiar odor served to bring tension back into his slumped shoulders and relaxed guard.

It was  _him_  again! The insufferable jackass just would not take a hint. The youkai had followed them, appearing out of nowhere for weeks now and bothering Inuyasha. Inuyasha supposed what the bumbling idiot was trying to do was seduce him, and the hanyo had turned him down flat every time, but every time he came back to try again.

 

He was the most persistent, but he was not the only one to try. Inuyasha had been thoroughly embarrassed to discover a week ago that he had come into his first heat. His body had become overheated and he paced their campsite, both antsy and drained of energy at the same time. Most humiliating of all, however, was when Shippo had told him that he smelled different now, a sweet, gentle odor. Myouga had informed him that he was in fact an uke.

 

Inuyasha had raged at that, after it had been explained to him what, in fact, and uke was. No one was going to claim him! He would be no one's breading bitch! The rage, however, masked his true feelings; fear, vulnerability, panic. He had fought his whole life to live free, to find a place where he would not be seen as simply some abomination, but a valued comrade. He could not survive the life of a concubine toy; the life he imagined belonged to a freak, a man born to be  _used_  by another man, an uke.

 

Still, he continued his days as he had always done, ignoring the warm tingling and the sense of longing he felt within his body, as well as the urgent warnings by the old flea demon to not go out alone. He had scoffed at that. Just because he was  _supposedly_  an uke did not mean he could not take care of himself, as he had always done. Myouga had warned that his strength would lessen, that his own body would work against him if his youkai found a desirable seme. Inuyasha continued on anyway. He had made his way in this cruel world as an untrained, and unprotected child, he could handle himself.

 

He had soon found out that things were not that simple. All kinds of youkai came pouring out of the woodwork, sniffing him out and attempting to woo him. Some were more amiable than others, and their ideas of “wooing” ran from food offerings to attempting to force him to mate. No one got very far. Inuyasha was far too strong, even in his weakened state, and far too stubborn to succumb to their attempts. He had rid himself of all of them, all of them except this asshole.

 

Said asshole was “hiding” across the field, just inside the tree line _. The_   _dumbass is trying to shroud himself_   _in_   _the shadow of the_   _trees and_   _is_   _dressed in a bright yellow kimono. This guy is pathetic_.

 

Seeing the hanyo at rest and eating, the youkai deemed it the appropriate time to approach his desired mate. Exiting the dark of the forest, he puffed himself up (ridiculously reminiscent of Shippo, if you asked Inuyasha) and walked forth with what he assumed to be a regal air.

 

Inuyasha watched the youkai get closer with cool eyes, barely suppressing a growl. Dressed in a fine silken sun-yellow kimono with orange tiger lily designs along the hem and neckline, and cinched by a deep purple obi, he oozed wealth and privilege. The bright ostentatious colors of his clothing did little to make up for his extreme lack of physical beauty. His skin was the mottled brown that was the marker of his race, the salamander youkai. His copper colored hair was tied up tightly in a top-knot, giving little relief to a broad, short face, nearly half of which was taken up by a wide mouth. He was heavy and ungraceful, his body thick and round, though not fat, and his obi barely able to tie around his pot shaped belly.

 

Stopping before the still sitting duo, he stretched his wide mouth into an impossibly wider smile. “Hello, there, my beautiful hanyo!”

 

Without taking his glaring golden eyes from those of the lustful gaze of the demon in front of him, Inuyasha calmly spoke. “Shippo.”

 

“Hmm?” the kit hummed, concentrating on his tasty piece of meat.

 

“Tree,” Inuyasha ordered and narrowed his eyes at the irrepressibly cheerful youkai.

 

Shippo wasted no time clamoring back up the tree he had climbed down from, knowing that when Inuyasha told him to get up in the trees, it meant danger.

 

Inuyasha menacingly stared the youkai down as he pushed aside his dinner and stood nose to nose with him.

 

“Didn't I tell you to scram, asshole?” Inuyasha growled. He stiffened as the beady-eyed demon locked his arms around his waist.

 

“Now, now, precious,” he admonished, ignoring the hanyo's growing hostility. “I have come to take you home. We have been playing this game for long enough, and it is time for you to come and take your rightful place as my mate.” He smiled toothily and leaned in for a kiss.

 

Inuyasha's eyes widened.  _Is this guy out of his mind?! I've done nothing but beat his ass for breathing the same air as me and he thinks I'm about to be his mate?!_  His eyes narrowed, however, as he saw the idiot try to kiss him and wasted no time in punching his fist into the side of his face.

 

The youkai stumbled to the side, releasing his hold on Inuyasha. He rolled to the ground with the force of the impact and landed ass over end in the tall grass. He sputtered and, after righting himself, sitting sprawled out on the ground, he glared reproachfully at the hanyo.

 

“Now, precious, that wasn't very nice,” he admonished as if Inuyasha were a particularly naughty child. He stood back up, with a great amount of wheezing and huffing, planting his hands on his hips. “Come love. You can even bring your stray.”

 

“Hey!” Shippo yelled indignantly from his perch in the tree.

 

Seeing Inuyasha continue to stand there, attempting to kill him with the strength of his glare alone, the youkai huffed, flopping his hands to his sides in exasperation and stepped toward him to grab the hanyo by the wrist, wanting to drag him back home for that first taste of that fine ass.

 

Finally, Inuyasha had had enough. He snared as he drew Tetsusaiga. The mighty sword transformed in a flash of light and was pointed in the demon's face, before he had a chance to take a second step. His eyes crossed looking at the tip of the sword that was inches from his nose.

 

“Do you want to die, asshole?” Inuyasha barked.

 

“Now, precious...,”

 

His gentle admonishment was interrupted by the prick of the sword against the quivering flesh of his neck.

 

“Leave,” Inuyasha commanded.

 

“But-”

 

“NOW!” Inuyasha nudged the sword a little deeper into the demon's thick neck. The sharp tang could be smelled in the air as the blade pierced the tough salamander skin, liberating a trickle of blood.

 

The youkai backed up a step and rose up to his full height, which only reached Inuyasha's nose, and puffed his chest out importantly.

 

“Very well, my precious. It appears you are still not ready,” he said as he back stepped from the fuming hanyo. “I will return later, and then you  _will_  be on your best behavior!”

 

The bumbling youkai turned tail and ran back into the distant trees, leaving an incredulous inu in his wake. Inuyasha heaved his sword over his head and swung it into the nearest tree with a roar of frustration. The hanyo felt a little better as the tree fell to the earth with a thunderous crash.

 

“Let's get out of here, kid,” Inuyasha sighed, placing Tetsusaiga back in its sheath.

 

Hopping from the branches, Shippo landed on the hanyo’s shoulder and the two ran into the forest.

 

The next morning found the two sojourners camped on the shores of a large pond. Shippo sat on a fallen log munching away at one of the apples he had helped to gather for their breakfast. Inuyasha sat next to him, stripped to the waist, with his kosode soaked with the cool waters and alternately draped over his head and wiped over his face and chest, in an attempt to cool his body. In his heat, he felt as if his blood was on fire.

 

He was trying to teach the kit the proper way to weave a small basket out of the reeds that surrounded the shallow waters. It was a difficult task, as the little kitsune was hard pressed to sit still and pay attention, but Inuyasha figured that if he had been able to learn it from his mother when he was much younger and more energetic than the young kit, then so could Shippo.

 

Both canine youkai paused, however, when a musky scent wafted over them. Inuyasha's ears flattened as he concentrated on the smell. It was undoubtedly yet another demon who would try to mate with him, but underneath the musk of heat, was something familiar.

 

 _Well whoever it is_ , Inuyasha thought, slumping in resignation and stashing his half-finished basket away,  _they aren't going to be catching me sitting around waiting for them_.

 

“Go find somewhere to hide out, kid,” Inuyasha told the kit, cursing himself for not having made sure to settle where there where trees nearby.

 

“Right!” Shippo scurried off into the tall reeds and grasses at their back.

 

Meanwhile a demon was approaching quickly. His youkai had finally broken free after having been tightly controlled for decades, and suppressed his normally analytical and rational mind. He had refused to give in to his heat, to roam around pouncing on anything that moved and degrading himself to hump like a… well, like a dog in heat. But now he had lost control and, as he feared would happen, he was ruled by his hormone driven, primal youkai. His once pale golden eyes were now awash in red. His always immaculate clothing were torn and dirtied, his armor discarded, and his hair disheveled. His youkai had roamed the wilderness for days now, searching for a potential mate.

 

Now, The raging youkai had indeed found the enticing scent of a potential mate. The scent of the being curled up his sensitive nose. It was a clean, sweet, alluring scent that lay over top a strong, fertile musk. It sparked instant desire in the wild youkai and he began to hunt for his mate. This youkai was powerful and healthy. It would be the perfect mate for this Sesshoumaru.

 

Faster than Inuyasha could unsheathe his sword, the demon was there. He burst through the waist high grasses and stepped a bare, clawed foot onto the sandy beach. Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized his brother, dread filled him when he finally took in the wild and unkempt appearance and demonic eyes.

 

Instantly he was hit with a wave of his brother's powerful youki. Inuyasha's tense, defensive stance relaxed instantly, as the youki beat against him, cut through him. Sesshoumaru radiated strength, dominance, and untold power, something that no other being had ever experienced, as no other being had been found worthy of Sesshoumaru's attentions.

 

The youkai was very pleased with what he saw. Water droplets sparkled in the sunlight as they dripped slowly down his honeyed skin. His bright hair shone in stark contrast to the tanned body, falling over his shoulders, the ends just reaching his pink pebbled nipples, erect as the gentle wind blew across his wet skin. Despite this, his face and chest were flushed in heat, and the air pulsed with the scent of an unmated uke in heat, both calling to the youkai like a siren.

 

Now Inuyasha recognized the muted scent of his brother, hidden under layers of other scents; musk, virility, arousal. Inuyasha could not have stopped the high-pitched whine of submission that escaped his throat if his life had depended on it - which he rather thought it did.

 

The youkai approached, walking tall and graceful, despite his wild nature, his eyes never leaving those of the frightened hanyo in front of him. As he stood before the hanyo, breathing in his ambrosial aroma and gazing down at the soft snowy white tresses and the sun-kissed skin of his neck and shoulder, a purr escaped him, rumbling deep in his chest. Inuyasha whined again, this time in need, and felt himself bare his neck to the youkai.

 

Inuyasha began to tremble when the youkai lowered his head to his neck. His mind had gone hazy with heat and arousal. Instincts clamored at him to do anything to please this strong and powerful seme. Here was a seme unlike any that had approached him before, one that could match him in power and vigor. One that could take care of him, Shippo, and any other pups the seme sired on him.

 

Sesshoumaru’s tongue swiped a slow hot trail up to his jaw, where he stopped to nibble at the tender flesh, the demon's hands rising and settling on his waist, circling his hips. Inuyasha whimpered as he responding to the intimate touch.

 

Suddenly, the purr turned into a growl and the hands on his hips tightened. Inuyasha abruptly found himself spun around and pushed to the sandy ground, splashing as he was driven to his hands and knees, half in and half out of the water. He felt the heavy weight on his back as the seme, _his_ seme descended on top of him. His fingers clawed into the sand, fisting and scraping as Inuyasha bucked back into the hard heat of the bigger youkai.

 

Above him, the youkai drew down the thick fabric of the fire-rat hakama, pulling them down to pool around at the hanyo’s knees. He could feel his own arousal, thick and wet, trapped in his own hakama. He worked his way free, rubbing the throbbing member, hot and painfully engorged with blood, on the soft mounds of the uke's ass. He grabbed at the flesh harshly, pulling an eager moan from the hanyo, and spread the inviting globes apart to reveal the small puckered entrance.

 

Rubbing the pad of is finger on the sensitive bud, he was rewarded with the delicious juices of his uke that lubricated the virgin entrance soaking his fingers.

 

Yes, this one was ripe.

 

Without preparation, he placed the head of his thick cock at the twitching entrance. He thrust inside to the hilt in one strong movement. The little uke groaned in pain and pleasure, exciting the youkai further with his exquisite voice.

 

Inuyasha couldn't hold back the moan. It hurt so badly! Nothing had ever prepared him for this. Yet, he was also overcome with pleasure as well. He felt so pleasantly full and, somehow, complete. The hot throbbing member inside him, felt like it belonged there.

 

The youkai began to move, thrusting deep inside of him. He braced his hands on Inuyasha's back, pushing his chest and face into the sandy ground, fully dominating him, owning him. His cock, hot and dripping, bounced between his legs with the force of the pounding tempo the seme had set.

 

Inuyasha had touched himself before, alone in his tree late at night, but he had never felt arousal like this. He was frightened beyond anything he had ever felt, but his body seemed to have detached from his mind and reveled in the thorough fucking he was receiving.

 

He panted harshly beneath the heavy weight of the youkai, moaning each time that hot length slid inside him. The demon's claws dug into the skin of his back, unmindful of Inuyasha's pain, grasping viciously at his back and shoulders, using them as leverage to pound into him harder and more brutally. Despite it all, his body seemed to ignore this and all too soon, he could feel the tell-tale warmth in his lower belly and his balls drew up.

 

“UHGN!” Inuyasha came with a hoarse cry, harder than he had ever come before. He slumped forward, his muscles unable to hold him up anymore, but rather than fall to the ground, he felt strong arms wrap around him and pull his back into a broad chest.

 

“Oh, Fuck!” he moaned as the motion drove his brother's cock deeper inside him and a warm wetness painted the walls of his channel as Sesshoumaru came inside of him. Immediately Inuyasha was distracted form the curiously fulfilling sensation by pain in his neck.

 

Growling possessively, the youkai pulled Inuyasha's head roughly to the side and sunk his fangs into the delectable flesh of the uke's neck, as he came in torrents, his cock squeezed and milked by the contracting walls of the hanyo’s warmth. His mate tasted so sweet, so delicious, and he lapped at the mating mark he had made, never loosening his jaws from the hanyo’s skin. As his youki invaded the mark, infusing his mate with the mating powers and protections and linking them together for eternity, the red began to bleed out of Sesshoumaru's eyes.

 

Inuyasha sat, impaled on his brother's softening cock and limp in submission and exhaustion, in his brother's embrace. His breath came in ragged pants as he fought of tears of sorrow, his rational mind returning along with all of the reason his mind could come up with why he should be horrified. His brother had marked him! Marked him as his mating bitch, and given their relationship up until now, he was certain that would only mean the worst for his future.

 

He stiffened when a growl began to rumble at his back as the surge of youki began to trickle to a stop. His eyes widened. That was not a good growl; it was a growl of warning, a growl of anger, of attack.

 

Automatically whining in submission, Inuyasha yelped as he was thrown from his brother's lap, yanking the soft cock out of his sensitive hole and flinging him into the cool waters of the pond. He sputtered and thrashed, at the unexpected meeting with water, but stopped and tried to scuttle away as he saw his fully aware and fully enraged half-brother marching his way toward him.

 

Unable to get far in the water, Sesshoumaru caught up with him quickly, painfully grabbing him by the hair and lifting him to his knees. He slapped Inuyasha hard across the face, pulling a yelp from the hanyo, before slapping him again and again. Inuyasha whimpered in fear, he had never seen his brother lose control of his stoic mask like this before.

 

“You vile hanyo, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!

 


	2. Pain

**Chapter 2- Pain**

 

Inuyasha found himself thrown back into the water. He sputtered and splashed, gasping for air as he broke the water and tried to get some distance between he and his enraged brother.

 

“I didn't,” He sputtered, “I didn't do anything! Argh!”

 

Inuyasha screamed in agony as Sesshoumaru swiped his claws, dripping with his acid green poison, across his face. He dove into the water, the acid feeling like liquid fire as the pain spread quickly through the nerves of his face. The water did nothing for the pain, as he desperately tried to scrub it out before it could spread and eat away at his flesh.

 

With one hand, he held the side of his face as he finally found his footing in the silting sand and tried to make his way to the grass. The other he used to hike his hakama up from around his knees. His legs trembled beneath him and threatened to give way after the brutal pounding he had just received.

 

Sesshoumaru would not let up, however. Faster than Inuyasha could blink, his brother had placed himself in front of him, standing over his Tetsusaiga, with a snarl on his face.

 

“How dare you!” he roared back-handing the hanyo, “How dare you!” he grabbed a fist full of the half-breed's, no doubt, flea infested mane and pulled hard, placing his face inches from his own, “You have destroyed everything! I am now stuck toting around some _animal_  as my mate for the rest of my life!”

 

The pain in his scalp and the busted lip were nothing compared to the flame of pain that sparked in his chest. He had always refused to acknowledge that part of him that still bled at the cruel words of his brother, but that pain, combined with his new found uke nature, left him raw. His instincts were reeling, crushed that he was displeasing his mate and urged him to bow and submit to anything that would make him happy.

 

He had a feeling that if he had been full demon, his youkai would have him crawling on his belly right now. His instincts were no less powerful but he did not have an inner youkai that could take over and act in his place like Sesshoumaru did, considering his unwilling actions earlier, he did not see how there was much of a difference.

 

Sesshoumaru released the hanyo’s hair, sickened by the sight of him, but moreso angry at himself. The beast had ruined him. It was apparently not enough to be born and sully the name of the Great Inu no Taisho with his filthy ningen blood, now the half-breed had to worm his way into his life.

 

He growled at the thought that his little brother had let this happen. Sesshoumaru had not been in his full faculties, ruled by his hormonal and ferial youkai, but his brother… The whelp had proven time and again, much to his chagrin, that he was not so easily defeated. He was no weakling. Sesshoumaru may not have been in full control, but the mutt could have fought him off. Admittedly, in his youkai state it would have been a bit harder to do so, but judging by his unmarked person, the hanyo had not even tried.

 

Sesshoumaru had no way of knowing that his baby brother had been just as incapacitated as he had been at the time. Finding out one's status as an uke was only possible upon their first heat, and Sesshoumaru was not known for his eager interest of the goings on of the hanyo’s life. In the moment, he was much too livid to take notice of the hanyo’s unusually submissive gestures and docile demeanor.

 

As disgusted as the situation made him, he had a duty now. His youkai was now tied to one that bore his mark and his instincts would start to make themselves known. Even now, he could feel his youkai snarling in fury over his treatment of the mangy cur. He curled his lip in a sneer of disgust.

 

Inuyasha was his mate and as such he would need to do… _mately_ … things for him. For starters, the hanyo would now have to be by his side. There would be no more of his traipsing around the Japanese countryside, wandering from place to place with no true goal and no purpose… unless, of course, he was accompanying Sesshoumaru when he was doing it.

 

He had to protect his mate. His scent was imprinted on his very mind. The musk that belonged to only his mate could now be distinguished from all others in the event that he would need to find him. He would begin to feel possessive and jealous around others of worthy stock, his instincts screaming to make sure his mate is not snatched away by another. However, he would fight it. He would rather run himself through with his own sword than act the mindless lust-soaked animal over a _hanyo_!

 

Secondly, he had to provide for his mate's needs. That did not mean the youkai prince would be waiting on him hand and foot. No, it meant that Inuyasha would be sheltered and fed, his basic needs to live would now be met to the best of the seme's ability. As far as Sesshoumaru was concerned, he would get nothing more from him. The hanyo had known what he was getting himself into when he had foolishly allowed himself to be taken by his youkai.

 

Sesshoumaru growled commandingly, signaling that he was leaving and the hanyo had better follow… or else. He took no heed of the hanyo as he hurriedly secured his hakama about his hips. He scrambled to find his hitoe and sword before the youkai disappeared in the forest in the horizon. He did not want to think of the consequences if he made Sesshoumaru have to come back to see what was taking so long.

 

Sesshoumaru ignored all of this, secure that his mate would follow with the confidence of one who was used to having his orders followed post haste, and lost himself in thought, his nose guiding him without need for conscious thought to where Jaken had set up camp to await his return.

 

How would his subjects take the news? He was certainly not the only youkai to detest hanyo filth, but would they dare snub _his_ mate? He was sure they would question his sanity for “choosing” a hanyo, but he could never admit that he had lost control to his demon. He would surely appear weak, unable to wield control of himself, let alone a kingdom. What would they say if he told them his youkai had chosen the hanyo as worthy of him? It would only seem as if the youkai was so weak as to be a match for the weakness of a hanyo. He would have to come up with a suitable story for the advisors on why he would do such a thing.

 

Did that mean that he was in fact weak? He mentally scoffed at the very idea. Of course not! As grudging as it was, he had to admit that Inuyasha was no weakling physically. That strength was probably what attracted his youkai, though… he did not recall his youkai witnessing any feats of strength back there... It did not matter, he decided. Inuyasha was still weak. He was born of weakness and thus weakness was bred into him. In this way, it did not reflect upon Sesshoumaru.

 

Yes, that was what he would need to tell the council. Inuyasha was strong and therefore worthy; a son whose physical power was worthy of the Great Inu-no-Taisho, and therefore worthy of him.

 

He ignored the presence of his brother catching up to him as he entered the darkened shadows of the forest.

 

~*~

 

Shippo stared wide eyed after Inuyasha's retreating back. Inuyasha had taught him how to track on day one of their travels, so he was not worried about the hanyo leaving him behind. No, he had more important things on his mind.

 

He had hidden really well, just like Inuyasha had told him to, the tall grasses providing the perfect place to watch Inuyasha kick butt while staying safe himself. That had not been what he had seen.

 

He could not believe it when it turned out to be Sesshoumaru. Just their luck! Inuyasha hated Sesshoumaru because the older youkai was really, really mean to him.

 

He did not smell the same and he had not recognized the scent. He had been worried for Inuyasha. Though he would always beat back the older youkai, the hanyo would not always come away from the fights fully intact. He did not want Inuyasha to be hurt. He also could see that Sesshoumaru was not his normal self.

The sharp whine Inuyasha had given when a wave of Sesshoumaru's youkai had spread through the area had stunned him. It was one of submission, in a language all canines and canine youkai could understand instinctually. He had no problem understanding what was going on with the pair; it was all natural reactions.

 

He had, however, been shocked to his core by what happened at the end. He had never seen such violence done to one's mate. He had hardly gotten over his shock that Inuyasha had just been mated, when the youkai prince had erupted into violence.

 

He had seen his parents mate on numerous occasions growing up. They had lived all together in a small, single chamber, earthen den, so it could hardly be avoided. Some nights he would be awoken by the grunts and sighs of his parents and would simply roll over to settle himself more comfortably in his bed of furs. It was simply a thing that parents did, like teach him how to use his kitsune tricks or discuss important and boring things he did not care about (Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku had done a lot of that too!).

 

But it had always been loving, or at least mundane. He had had no concept of someone treating their mate in such away. He knew the world was a very dangerous and violent place (who wouldn't realize that, after having seen someone kill their father and wear his pelts?), but true violence had never been something that happened between mated pairs.

 

Poor Inuyasha! Myouga had explained it to both of them: once Inuyasha was mated, he was stuck with the seme who claimed him.

 

Shippo debated with himself on what he should do. On one hand, he thought that he maybe should go back to Sango and Miroku. Maybe they could help Inuyasha out. Maybe they could be around to protect Inuyasha, since Inuyasha was trapped in a submissive role and could not go against his seme.

 

But then, what could they really do? At his young age, he did not understand why humans and youkai despised each other, but he was indeed conscious of the differences between them. They would be no match against Sesshoumaru, who was more powerful than most  _youkai_ , let alone ningen. Also, Miroku and Sango had mated and settled down. He knew they would come to Inuyasha's aid without question, but he also knew that Sango had just been pupped the last time they had visited. She would be even more unable to assist Inuyasha.

 

On the other hand, Shippo wanted to go to Inuyasha. He knew there was not much that could be done for Inuyasha; Sesshoumaru was his seme. Inuyasha had become like a father to him. He wanted to be there for him, sure, but he needed his new father as well. He did not want to be separated from him.

 

The decision made, he jumped through the tall, thick reeds and grasses, and followed after the mated pair. He would do anything he could to help Inuyasha. He promised himself that he would be on his best behavior for the hanyo, and try not to whine as Inuyasha so often accused him of doing.

 

He caught up to Inuyasha just as he reached the tree line of the forest. With a final jump, he bounded atop the hanyo’s shoulder, careful to pick the side that was unwounded by the still sensitive, but already sealed mating mark. Knowing that his words would be unwelcome in this solemn procession, Shippo nuzzled Inuyasha's cheek in comfort and affection.

 

They had only recently reached the place in their relationship where they performed such physical displays of their growing connection to each other. He loved it when Inuyasha ruffled his hair and almost looked forward to bed time when he would snuggle up on Inuyasha's chest, resting his head under his chin and feel himself wrapped in the inu's strong arms.

 

It seemed to have been the right thing to do, as Inuyasha tilted his head into the touch and raised his hand to pet the young kit in thanks.

 

~*~

 

The trio arrived at the clearing, where Jaken had been camped for the past few days while his master had gone off in a frenzied search for someone to sate his heat induced urges, late in the evening. They had been silent the entire journey, the older youkai completely ignoring the fact that there were two others accompanying him and never stopping once, either for food or other needs, simply intent on getting to where he was going.

 

The kappa had immediately set upon Sesshoumaru as he entered the clearing, disturbing the dozing dragon that usually traveled with his brother, with his squawking.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama! You're back!” he screeched excitedly. He knew from experience not to ask questions about his activities while gone. He would only be answered with a quick kick to the head. He had not needed to, however, as almost immediately after, that lowly hanyo that dared blend his master's pure blood with human mud walked into the clearing behind him.

 

“Wak!” he squealed, “What is that filth doing here?”

 

His only reply was a small stone being belted at his head.

 

Sesshoumaru continued to ignore Inuyasha and Shippo. He immediately took position as look out at the edge of camp, his stone-faced mask firmly back in place after hours of brisk walking to calm back into control of himself.

 

Inuyasha leaped gingerly, with Shippo still clinging to his shoulder, into a sturdy tree that hung over the clearing, stifling a moan and perching himself on a branch. His backside was still very sore from the rough treatment of the mating, and the constant walking since had only exacerbated the problem.

 

He leaned back against the rough bark, almost sobbing in relief at finally being off of his feet. He was so tired. The mating had taken a lot out of him, as well as the emotional upheaval in the aftermath. He daren't succumb to it, though. He had no idea what Sesshoumaru would do now. He had to make sure Shippo was safe from the older youkai as well as make sure he was not an easy target for the demon's ire.

 

He waited until the inu youkai had settled by the fire, far away from him. The kappa sent glares at him every few minutes, filled with a mix of disgust and curiosity, but Sesshoumaru explained nothing to the little demon. After Jaken had fallen asleep against the small dragon, as evidenced by the loud snoring, Inuyasha waited for the older youkai to follow him into slumber. He fought hard against sleep, not feeling safe until the youkai was unconscious as well. His head jerked every few minutes, his eyes snapping open when they had fell to the allure of sleep. Finally, he had no choice but to succumb; it seemed the youkai prince did not sleep, as he continued to stare blankly in front of him long after the rest of camp drifted off.

 

~*~

 

Inuyasha woke up the next day and refused to open his eyes. The moment he was conscious, his mind had been assailed by the vivid memory of the events of the day before. If he did not open his eyes, he could continue to pretend it had all just been one horrific nightmare.

 

Shippo squirmed where he was laid out on his chest, his head tucked under the hanyo’s chin. Inuyasha smoothed his hand down the kit's small back, a move he had learned soothed the restless child on their travels.

 

With a silent shaky breath, he opened his eyes.

 

It was real. No matter how much he did not want to be so.

 

He had been able to distract himself from the doom of his impending life yesterday with random and neutral thoughts, thoughts that had lasted him through the long walk without him ever having to think about the dread that was held just out of his conscious mind's reach.

 

That was not the case now. Now, his life as his conceited and spiteful older brother's bitch was beginning its first full day. His brother was standing below him, looking at him with cold, blank eyes. Apparently, he had been about to wake him. Inuyasha was grateful he had not had the chance. He could well imagine what his older brother would consider the proper way to wake him up. Instead, the Western Lord simply turned and walked through the clearing and into the surrounding forest.

 

“Well! Get up you lazy beast!” Jaken screeched at him from the other side of the fire. With that he took the reins of the dragon and scurried after Sesshoumaru.

 

Inuyasha cursed under his breath. He knew he could easily follow the small band of youkai, but he suspected that any delay would get him another beating like yesterday. He stood slowly, careful not to jostle and therefore wake Shippo, but also feeling strangely weighed down, as if his robes were waterlogged.

 

By late afternoon, the group had not stopped. Inuyasha's legs were even more tired and sore after yesterday's journey. The day's trek had also given him time to catalogue the various scratches and bruises that littered his body from his brother's rough treatment. The poisoned wounds to his face remained open and throbbing, though he thought he had washed most of the green acid out. Inuyasha did not know why the injuries were still there. Such small hurts were usually healed within a couple of hours.

 

Still, Inuyasha took little notice of the odd reactions of his body. He had been through so much worse in his life that a few mild discomforts barely registered. Instead he spent the entire journey thinking that he had forgotten something. There was something just out of his reach, some knowledge that was important that he simply could not grasp.

 

Shippo sat on his shoulder, uncharacteristically silent and leaning on Inuyasha's head in tired boredom. Usually the kit spent the entire day hopping from his shoulder to the surrounding trees or down to explore on the ground, chattering inanely and incessantly the entire time. It appeared that he too knew who was really in charge in this group and would not risk his wrath.

 

Shippo's stomach rumbled. Inuyasha sighed. Sesshoumaru had not let up on his rapid pace of constant walking, and so, he and Shippo had not eaten since the small pheasant they had shared the morning before.

 

He understood Shippo's low tolerance for going without, the kit had never gone hungry since the day he had joined Inuyasha and Kagome, and he suspected never before either. He, however, was fine, his body more than used to going without what it needed for long periods of time. As he had done when he was a child, alone and starving, he pushed the hunger away and forced himself not to think of it.

 

Finally, Sesshoumaru stopped.

 

“Set up camp, Jaken,” he ordered in an unfeeling monotone.

 

Inuyasha slid down the side of a tree to lean against it wearily. Shippo hopped down to his knee.

 

“Go get yourself something to eat, Shippo,” Inuyasha said quietly, tiredly, “Remember how I taught you to do it?”

 

Shippo nodded with wide eyes. “Why don't you come with me?” he asked with a concerned look.

 

“Tired, pup.”

 

Shippo stared up at him for a minute, before hopping off into the woods.

 

As soon as he was clear of the camp, the deep demanding voice of the inu youkai sounded.

 

“Hanyo. Come here.”

 

Inuyasha's head whipped around to the place where Sesshoumaru was perched on a fallen log, staring at him with cold golden eyes. He raised his chin in defiance of being ordered around, a reflex remaining from their eternal rivalry.

 

“Why?” he demanded, while at the same time, shakily rising from the ground and approaching the Western prince. He stood, insolent arms crossed and looking the alpha straight in the eyes, in front of him.

 

Without warning the youkai growled loudly at his defiant display and yanked the hanyo down to his knees before him and wrenching his head back by a handful of his hair, baring his neck. Inuyasha growled, fighting a submissive whine, self-loathing clawing at his insides while doing so.

 

Ignoring Inuyasha’s protests, Sesshoumaru twisted the hanyo’s head to the side with a hard tug to the hair he still fisted.

 

“What are you- Uuuhgn!” Inuyasha whimpered in pain and shock, as a hot tongue swiped suddenly over the open claw wounds across his cheek.

 

Sesshoumaru twisted his tongue into the wounds, lapping up the remaining particles of poison from them and imparting the healing properties of his saliva. The hanyo was not healing fast enough. Yet another instance of the detrimental effects of the diluting youkai blood with ningen.

 

Sesshoumaru's youkai had been raging both days now and he had fought it with every step. It wanted his mate near him, wanted him healed, pleasured. It had inundated him with dreams the couple of hours he had rested; dreams of the hanyo’s sweet skin and wide eyes. He had woken in a worse mood than when he had fallen asleep.

 

When he had gone to wake the lowly beast, he had noticed that he had not healed himself in the night. He had stood before him warring with himself on whether to inquire about his health or not. He absolutely refused to be concerned about the brat. Luckily, he had woken on his own, his resigned golden gaze breaking his older brother's attention from within and allowing him to get away from him.

 

As the sun began dipping below the horizon of trees, and they had set up camp, he noticed that the half-breed was still not healed. His anger at the worthless hanyo had grown as he felt a sliver of concern work its way into his mind.

 

Now he was healing his brother, licking at the deepest wound to his face and angry that he had not been able to control himself from pampering the mutt. And it was pampering. The hanyo would not die from these injuries, there was no reason to be concerned about him, and yet here he was.

 

He moved on from his cheek, the deep scratches sealed with pink scars that would fade in a few days. He took the hanyo’s split bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth and laving at the dried blood, the superficial cut healing quickly.

 

Inuyasha was shocked to say the least. At first, he had thought the youkai was going to hurt him again, but grew even more confused when he began to lick and suck at his skin, healing the cuts, scrapes and bruises. He wanted to struggle when his brother ripped open his hitoe and continued to lick at his bruised ribs and chest. The youkai turned him over to swipe at the long claw marks down his back, rubbed raw by his fire-rat robe all day.

 

“Sesshoumaru!” He did struggle when the youkai moved lower and grasped the hem of his hakama. The struggle only served to earn him a hard slap to his backside, causing him to yelp and whine and automatically present his rump to the seme. He once again became passively pliant and easily manipulated in the seme's hands. His hakama was quickly divested after that.

 

Sesshoumaru's mouth moved to his hips. They had been heavily bruised, the skin punctured by the youkai's long sharp claws in his enthusiasm the day before. The marks there took a little longer time to heal as the bruises were deeper. It seemed the prince had to mouth his entire hip area and suck on all of the flesh of his lower cheeks, so covered in bruises they had been.

 

“Oh Gods!” Inuyasha groaned. That healing tongue had dipped between the rounded cheeks to the sore, swollen pucker. He licked and sucked at the tender flesh, until Inuyasha wanted to cry in humiliation and budding pleasure. He could feel his body react to the stimulation, his hips pumped slightly to shove himself closer to that hot mouth and he could feel his hole began to secrete the lubricating juices in preparation to be taken.

 

“NNGHN!” he moaned deeply when that tongue wiggled its way past his guardian muscles to lave inside his channel. Hard and aching he spurted his release when the tongue swiped at a specific spot and pleasure burst through his body.

 

Finally, Sesshoumaru was done. He had sufficiently healed the half-breed as well as he could. He refused to acknowledge his very pleased youkai, nor would he recognize any sort of pride at so thoroughly pleasuring his mate in the process.

From his place perched back on the fallen log, he looked down at the debauched looking hanyou on the ground beside him, panting, naked, and covered in sweat, a blush covering his whole body as he covered his face with his hands in humiliation and shame. At least he was a good, responsive bitch.

 

“Stay,” he commanded, as the hanyo began to shift, looking for his clothes to dress. The hanyo would stay beside him tonight.


	3. Hide

**Chapter 3- Hide**

 

It had been a week since he had mated the hanyo. His days were filled with inner battles with his youkai, battles he almost always won. Battles over kindness, appreciation, and lust filled his mind. His days were spent wandering the forests. His body automatically traveled in the direction of the Western Kingdom's jakamachi, his castle and the surrounding town, and stayed ever vigilant for threats, but his mind was always elsewhere.

 

It was for the best, that his youkai kept him so occupied. Sesshoumaru still could not rid himself of the images from his dreams. His nights were filled with a barrage of images invading his sleep, images of Inuyasha. He dreamt of the hanyo naked and debauched, spread for him and wanting. He dreamed of him sleeping, snuggled against his side. He saw the hanyo angry in the throes of battle, glorious and powerful. He watched as the radiance that perpetually surrounded him, dimmed as he slumped to the ground after being slapped into a tree. He had visions of the look of dread in his paling face when the hanyo would see him approach, only looking at him from the corner of his eyes, his fists clenching is expected pain, humiliation, and anger.

 

The images that left his panting and hard or drowning in a pool of unwanted guilt when his woke up. The feelings that came with them, left him feeling as if her had just walked through a hurricane. He felt lust for his mate so powerful, he moaned in remembrance. He felt awe at the beauty and fire of the creature and wrestled with feelings of remorse and protection when he saw the pain and sadness in those wide golden eyes. And the feelings were becoming ever more difficult to bury when he was awoken.

 

Every morning he woke up in a daze that would amass into a cloud of rage. Sesshoumaru felt he was being manipulated, even if it was by his own mind. His ire grew each morning as night after night, his mind was assaulted. They left him confused and flustered. When he was not turned inward, battling his youkai, he often found himself eyeing he hanyo; following the curve of the pale column of his throat, or feeling his fingertips tingle as he resisted wrapping his hands around the thin waist he could make out within the thick folds of his fire-rat robes. It frustrated him to no end. He knew he was being manipulated and resisted all the stronger. As a result, it was the hanyo that was hit with the brunt of his fury.

He had never felt so out of control. He would not be a puppet to the fates. He would not yield to the pressures in his mind to  _care_  for the hanyo. And yet, though he had not been violent since that first shock of mating, he had never lost his hold of his emotions like he was growing ever more used to doing in the days since he had found himself mated to his father's shame. Sure, he had battled his brother sword to sword before, but with his uncontrollable rage and humiliation it had turned into something completely different.

 

It had become a cycle. He would dream of the hanyo and his transgressions against him and feel guilt. The guilt would only make him angry. He would take his anger out on the hanyo and it would start all over again the next day. He constantly ran hot and cold toward the hanyo, one minute demanding he be at his side, the next growing viciously at him for some minor offence or another.

 

The hanyo would be his ruination if he did not find balance.

 

~*~

 

Inuyasha was quietly panicking.

 

Around him, the imp was unpacking the dragon and setting up camp for the night. Sesshoumaru had disappeared into the woods to hunt for dinner. Shippo was playing contentedly with his kitsune toy-tricks next to him.

 

For the past week, he had been experiencing stomach pains and rolling nausea. The first couple of days, he had tried to dismiss it as aftereffects of the mating. He was a hanyo after all. Perhaps he was not strong enough to handle the amount of youki that Sesshoumaru had pumped into him through the mating mark. After those few days, however, when he continued to feel increasingly tired and sick, other, more frightening thoughts crept into his mind.

 

It came to a head yesterday when he had woken and immediately ran into the surrounding underbrush, retching and gasping as he brought up the entire contents of his stomach. Shippo had hopped after him in concern petting his hair and murmuring words of comfort he had heard from his mother and Kagome.

 

That was when he knew. He was pregnant.

 

How Inuyasha knew this, he could not say, but he was certain. He could feel it in his bones, in his flesh, in his heart.

 

He had slumped against a nearby tree, circling his stomach with his arms. Shippo had whined in concern, imploring him to tell the kitsune what was wrong, but the hanyo had ignored the child. He could not say the words. He was in shock, on the verge of tears, and could not bear to say anything.

 

What was he going to do?

 

He had gripped his still hard and thickly muscled belly, tearing aside the fabric of his hitoe. Inuyasha clawed at his stomach, still firm and flat beneath his hand, leaving red welts and beads of blood on the tender skin. He could not do this! He could not carry a piece of that monster he called brother within him. It had to go! He had to get it out! But… could he kill it? Could he rip it from his belly with his own claws? He would be rid of the bit of Sesshoumaru that dwelt inside him, freeing him from this burden, freeing him from the life of a breeding bitch.

 

Inuyasha’s fingures curled and and he braced his claws against the skin of his stomach. He paused to take a deep breath, brace himself for what he was going to do. The pause, however, continued on longer than Inuyasha had meant it, and continued on until his hands shook, his teeth clenched, and his eyes stung behind his tightly closed lids. Though he was just a half-breed, Inuyasha's instincts were as strong as any pure inu youkai. He  _knew_ he was pregnant, he  _knew_  he had to protect the life within him, and he  _knew_ , without a doubt that he would never be able to terminate that life.

 

But what was he going to do? He was pregnant. He had never in his life, having spent his formative years with humans, even thought that a man could get pregnant until just a few weeks ago when Myouga explained his Uke nature to him. How was he supposed to do this? And with Sesshoumaru…

 

No. He could take care of himself. He had spent a lifetime doing it. He refused to believe that he would ever need Sesshoumaru, and inwardly scoffed at the idea that the youkai could or would have anything to offer him towards helping with his pregnancy and subsequent raising of the child that he could not do himself.

 

His thoughts grew a little lighter as those thoughts sparked a sudden realization. Raising the child. He would have a child! He would have a real family. Shippo would have a younger sibling.

 

He thought back to his own childhood. His mother had raised him by herself. Though they lived in her family's estate with all of her kin, they had been isolated from them. Still, with only his mother to care for him, it had been the happiest time of his life. It would be no different with his own child. He had spent a few years traveling alone with Shippo and had grown to see him as a kind of son/little brother type, and he felt that he had done alright with that. He could raise this child, too.

 

But one thing marred Inuyasha's hope for this being inside of him- Sesshoumaru. He could only imagine what the hateful creature that was his mate and brother would do to him if he found out. The daiyoukai treated him as dirt beneath his shoes, but if he found out what he had done, that he had gotten pregnant… Well, Inuyasha shuddered to think about the consequences of that.

 

He could not tell his brother. He knew that. There was no telling what he would do.

Would he care? Would he treat Inuyasha worse? Would he harm the baby, knowing that it would be part hanyo? Would he do what Inuyasha knew he could not and rip the babe from his flesh?

 

Inuyasha had never seen any part of his brother that would lead him to believe that Sesshoumaru was capable of the compassion, the kindness, the  _decency_  not to.

Inuyasha could not chance it.

 

The younger inu had sat and thought about his predicament long into the night, finally falling into a restless sleep in the early hours. Now he was again sitting in a clearing they had appropriated for their camp. He sat apart from the two youkai gathered around the small fire after spending the day traveling. Sesshoumaru seemed to know where he was going, though he had not seen fit to tell Inuyasha of it.

 

That was ok. Inuyasha had come to a decision.

 

He waited quietly in his spot in the clearing. He waited for the night to descend upon them, the moon to rise into the sky and herald the temptation of sleep. It was a long and tense wait. The daiyoukai's vigilance could outlast the most patient of enemies, let alone the short tempered and very  _im_ patient hanyo.

 

Finally, the night was still. Inuyasha, who had been resting with his eyes closed against a fallen log, snapped his eyes open. Shippo, as always, had fallen asleep against his chest. Inuyasha gathered the sleeping kit in his arms, careful not to wake him and cause him to make noise. Silently he rose up from the ground and stealthily inched his way to the edge of the clearing, his eyes never leaving the shadowed face of his sleeping brother. Releasing a silent breath, once he was far enough from their camp not to be heard, Inuyasha broke into a run and dashed through the woods.

 

Sesshoumaru knew the moment when Inuyasha had run. He had watched the hanyo inch his way from the clearing from beneath the veil of his hair, appearing to be asleep, but ever watchful. He could hear the instant when the hanyo stopped toeing through the underbrush and began to run, the sounds of breaking sticks and rustling foliage sounding in his wake.

 

In wordless fury he rose soundlessly from where he had been seated. A primal snarl sounded in his throat as he went after his wayward mate.

 

Inuyasha spared a glance down as he felt Shippo stir in his arms. He had hoped the kit would be able to sleep through the journey, but it seemed the jostling had woken him.

 

“Inuyasha?” Shippo questioned with a sleep worn voice, his eyes blinking out sleep as they gazed up at the inu.

 

“It's alright kid. We're just gonna get out of he- Gah!,” Inuyasha's assurances were cut off suddenly. In his distraction, he had run them right into something. As hard as it had felt, it must have been a tree. Inuyasha paled, however, and his eyes opened impossibly wide in panic as he looked up into the cold, dangerous mask of Sesshoumaru.

 

“Shippo! Run!” Inuyasha whispered shakily, his breath stolen from him by the combination of the run, getting the wind knocked out of him, and his fear.

 

“Inuyasha..,” Shippo began, but he was spurred into action as the daiyoukai struck out and grabbed hold of Inuyasha’s hitoe, lifting him effortlessly from the ground.

 

Inuyasha snarled and struggled, trying to claw at the hand that held him and kick away.

 

“Where do you think you are going, hanyo?” Sesshoumaru demanded in his steely voice.

~*~

 

Inuyasha lay listlessly in the thick grasses by the river bank where they had camped for the night. It had eight days since Sesshoumaru had caught him trying to run away. More than a week since he had been dragged back kicking and screaming to the campsite.

 

Inuyasha had thought before he had run that he had been kept a prisoner. The days that had followed had shown him that he had been wrong. Though he fought him at every chance, Sesshoumaru now kept him under constant scrutiny, with the only time he was able to separate from his brother being when he would slip away with his morning sickness. He did not go anyplace that Sesshoumaru did not know about or sleep anywhere but by his side. He could not bathe without an escort or hunt for himself.

 

That in particular had become a real problem.

 

For the past six days, they had been traveling along the small river that ran south-westerly from the mountains in the distance. Usually that would have meant more than favorable conditions for a long journey such as this. The river meant water for drinking and bathing. Following the flow of the water gave travelers a definite point of reference and the rushing waters could be used as protection against attack. It also provided a constant source of food in the form of fish.

 

It would have been ideal, except for one very significant thing. Each time Sesshoumaru slapped down a juicy salmon or a fresh and slippery eel, Inuyasha would end up rushing from his spot beside the daiyoukai and release the sparse contents of his stomach in the bushes. The smell that had once curled his toes with gastronomic delight, now curled his stomach with revulsion.

 

And the subsequent refusing of his mate's offerings left his brother in a snit every time.

 

Sesshoumaru was not blind to his brother's frequent trips into the bushes. His nose certainly did not miss the tell-tail stench of sick. He, however, refused to be manipulated into showing the hanyo pity or undeserved kindness. He had always known how conniving hanyo were reported to be. Though Inuyasha had always struck him as having a blunt and straightforward character, Sesshoumaru knew deviousness was part of his human heritage. After all, his own father had been taken in by the sly influences of that human wench which had resulted in his lowly mate's birth. He was convinced that this show of Inuyasha's “sickness” was just that- a show.

 

Each time Inuyasha fell behind to the cover of the overgrowth, Sesshoumaru pointedly ignored it and continued on. He never got far enough to lose the hanyo’s presence from his senses, but he would not be hindered by the hanyo’s dramatics. When he would refuse the food the daiyoukai would offer, Sesshoumaru would simply give in inward shrug. He felt no remorse for not providing alternative food for his mate; he had done his duty as a seme and provided food for the brat. It was not his fault the hanyo would not eat it.

 

Inuyasha was growing ever wearier and fatigued and his stomach clenched painfully with hunger cramps. He had long grown used to going without, having spent more than a century as a pup fending for himself. His body, however, was consuming far more resources than was usual in its effort to provide for the budding life within him. Therefore, he had not been able to last even a fraction of the time he normally had without proper food.

 

His only respite from the gnawing hunger, as he was not allowed to gather his own food, was Shippo. The little kit was very concerned for Inuyasha. The hanyo refused to talk to him about it, but Shippo could not miss the exhaustion and defeat he saw in the inu's face. Each day he scampered off into the nearby forest, though never too far from Inuyasha, and he would practice the skills that the inu had taught him, or at least that was what he told Inuyasha. In reality, while he was indeed using the skills he had been taught, he just wanted to find anything that the hanyo could eat. Each night he would come back to camp with his small pockets laden with sweet berries, or a mouse or small bird he had succeeded in hunting. It wasn't much, but of what Inuyasha was able to stomach, he would scarf down as if he had not eaten in weeks.

 

It was with relief that he heard the distinct slap of a hand on skin and gruff “damn Flea!” from Inuyasha one morning. Perhaps Myouga could help.

 

Inuyasha lowered his hand from where he had smacked the annoying flea from where Myouga had begun to feast at his neck. Myouga, satisfactorily squished, tumbled down and landed on his open palm.

 

“Uhg! Greetings Inuyasha,” the old flea said woozily. He shook himself and straightened his small jacket before peering up at the inu hanyo. “I came to check on you with all these troubles with all of this uke business. Unfortunately, after tasting your blood just now, I fear the situation has not gone as planned. I'm afraid to ask, but Inuyasha… you are pregnant, are you not?”

 

Inuyasha flushed in shame and to his horror, he felt his eyes prickle as that simple statement caused all of his suppressed fear to rush to the surface.

 

“I… I...,” he gulped nervously but was interrupted before he could continue.

 

“Inuyasha, you're pregnant? You're gonna have a baby?!” Shippo questioned loudly and hopped over excitedly.

 

“Shippo…” Inuyasha began, but trailed off as a shadow fell over him.

 

“What did you just say?” Sesshoumaru's deep voice sounded from above.


	4. Unmask

**Chapter 4- Unmask**

 

Sesshoumaru had been walking back to the spot he had left the hanyo on the river bank. The mutt had taken to lounging in the tall grasses, where it was cooler and the ground was softer, instead of doing anything actually useful lately.

 

Sesshoumaru had been in the river, further downstream taking in the conditions ahead and considering if they could still take the short cut to the castle this late in the season. If it was still open, they would shave off weeks from their journey and be at the castle within a few more days travel.

 

It wasn't that the Western prince especially wanted to return to the castle, where he was constantly under watch from his servants, counselors, and enemies alike, and forced into the tedious duties given to the acting ruler of the land. He certainly did not look forward to the coming discussion with his advisory council of just who had taken as a mate.

 

Still, it would be worth the agitation just to divest himself of the very trying presence of his mate. Every day spent in his company drove the daiyoukai wild with suppressed frustrations. Once they reached the castle, he would be able to shove the blight to his father's- and now his- name into the far reaches of the manor and set a team of servants to attend him and not think about him again until he had to.

 

Looking over the rocky passage ahead, he was heartened to discover that luck was finally on his side. The path was open. The narrow passage through the small and craggy mountain range that bordered the farthest reaches of the royal province was not yet impassable. Discovering this, he had made his way back to where the hanyo and his kit could be found, to rouse them and get them on the move.

 

The news had significantly raised his mood. He would be essentially rid of the brat for a good long while if he could get through these next few days without doing anything drastic. His relative cheer came crashing back down in a heap around him as he neared them and heard the kit spout his inflammatory words.

 

"Inuyasha, you're pregnant? You're gonna have a baby?"

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened and he froze mid-step. His body shook with the force of his shock, before he raced over to the assembly and loomed over the hanyo.

 

"What did you just say?" he said in his most menacing voice.

 

The hanyo looked up at him with large eyes, filled and quivering with fear and horror. His mouth opened and shut, his throat working as if to answer yet never uttering a word. The old flea retainer jumped from his open palm and hopped onto the kit's head in fright.

 

Sesshoumaru reached down and grabbed the front of the hanyo’s hitoe. He yanked the beast up, bringing them face to face and lifting the abomination off the ground.

 

"What. Did. You. Say?" he repeated, his voice so low he could have been whispering except for the growl that came out underneath the words.

 

“Inuyasha!” the kitsune squeaked.

 

“My Lord! Please!” the flea admonished in astonishment.

 

Not waiting for the disgrace to answer, he ripped open the hitoe he held in his hands and tore down his hakama to pool around the hanyo’s slim hips. The hanyo seemed to rally at this and growled at his treatment, beginning to struggle in his grasp. He froze, however, a gasping whimper escaping his clenched jaw, as Sesshoumaru lowered his nose to the delicate skin of his lower belly.

 

Sesshoumaru sniffed, pressing his sensitive nose into the hard muscle and smooth skin of the hanyo’s abdomen. He sifted through the scents; the strong presence of trees and plants and earth and water, the heavy scent of the kit, food smells and the smell of sick, his own scent and the deep musk of the hanyo himself. He filtered through them searching for what lay beneath all of it.

 

The hanyo continued to struggle and his legs attempted to curl in and cover his bared stomach from demon lord. Sesshoumaru allowed none of that as he buried his nose in the curly hair above his mate's genitals and searched his scent for something that was still too small for even his senses to have sniffed out.

 

Suddenly he stiffened. A spike of something soft and delicate and warm made it into his nostrils. He released the hanyo, letting him drop to the ground with a thump and a yelp. The hanyo crumpled on the ground and curled in on himself, bringing his knees up and wrapping his arms around his stomach. He growled in warning. The kit and the flea immediately raced toward him to fawn over him and make sure he was unharmed.

 

Sesshoumaru simply stared down at him in shock. It was faint, almost not there at all, but he did in fact smell of a bred bitch. The hanyo was truly pupped.

 

That could not be possible. Wasn't his brother just the lowly hanyo who had ruined him in an attempt to…? Admittedly, Sesshoumaru had never had any idea what the beast had been attempting to get out of being mated to him- he could not have possibly thought that he would not suffer by Sesshoumaru's hand for his idiocy. All the western prince was aware of, all he focused his hate and anger towards was the idea that the hanyo had got in the way of his raging youkai and refused to step aside, causing his youkai to take his brother as his mate.

 

He knew that his brother was strong and more than a worthy opponent on the battle field. The hanyo had proven it time and time again. That was what had made Sesshoumaru so bitter. His brother had the power to fight him off, whether Sesshoumaru had been in control of himself or not. And yet, the hanyo had come out of the mating relatively unharmed, appearing as if he had not even tried to put up a fight and simply rolled over and allowed it to happen. It looked as if he had welcomed the mating, welcomed shackling himself to the Western prince, and welcomed his brother's potential downfall.

 

Sesshoumaru had imagined that Inuyasha had relished the thought that he had backed the daiyoukai into a corner he could not fight his way out of. There was nothing Sesshoumaru could do once he mated. There was no way to undo a union of two youkai. They became one being for eternity, the dominant partner pouring his youki into his mate and securing the submissive as a part of them. Inuyasha had to have been basking in his triumph.

 

But, if the hanyou was pupped…

 

Was his little brother in truth an uke? He had heard of ukes. They were valued for their rarity. Only the strongest of male youkai could turn out to be ukes and even among those that were strong enough, it was still rare for one to turn out to actually be one. The male body was not made to be pupped and the feat was done only with the help of great physical strength, health, and demon power. Given this, how could his half-breed brother be and uke?

 

Sesshoumaru had always thought that they were more desirable. He had grown up to appreciate the male form. To him, the harsh planes and hard muscle of strength and power, contrasted enticingly with that delicate vulnerability that all men share, if one looks in the right places. A man's body was far more enthralling, far more interesting than the curves and softness of a woman. Couple that with Sesshoumaru's disgust with simpering and weakness, and an uke looked like his ideal mate.

 

His eyes fixed on the huddled body of his mate and Sesshoumaru finally  _saw_  what he was looking at. His mate, his  _pregnant_  mate, was crawling away from him.  _In fear._  His mate could barely move his legs as he attempted to both crawl and keep them curled against his stomach in protection. It was as if the hanyo feared that the baby would be ripped out of him if he were to leave it vulnerable to attack.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened in horror as the thought struck him.

 

That was  _exactly_  what his mate feared. He feared that his seme would kill their pup. He feared that his seme, the figure that was supposed to care for him above himself and protect him with his life, would reach out and claw the life from him, if not kill him outright. And he had a very good reason to think it would happen.

 

As the implications of this new understanding of the situation between him and his mate began to sink in, the events of the last few weeks began to fall into place.

Gods! What has he done? He had not known he was so adept at twisting his own mind into knots in order to ignore things that he didn’t wish to see, but the situation had finally become such that he could no longer make excuses.

 

 

For the first time, he realized that none of this was Inuyasha's fault. The hanyo had never wanted any of this, had probably never even known it  _could_  happen or  _why_  it was happening. Despite his actions the past few weeks, Sesshoumaru was not thick enough to think that the hanyo had any idea about youkai mating. He was well aware that the half-breed was raised among humans. That was one of the reasons he gave himself to hate him for.

 

There would have been no way for him to fight back. Not with a powerful youkai on his scent. The hanyo must have been in heat. The daiyoukai's own heat induced mania could only have been fueled by the scent of a ready bitch. There is nothing that the hanyo could have done to resist.

 

Dimly, while his mind raced over the cruelty he had bestowed on his mate -  _his own mate!_  - he was aware that he was simply standing frozen over his struggling brother. He had to do something. The part of his mind, his youkai, that had been pleading with him to care for his mate all these weeks was seemingly working harder to make up for lost time now that it was unleashed from where the daiyoukai had caged it in his unconsciousness.

 

He had to calm his mate down. Seeing his mate so distressed was painful to him. He had to sooth his mate.

 

Snapping out of his thoughts, he gazed down at his mate. He continued his stilted crawl away from Sesshoumaru. His hakama had slipped down to bare the pale flesh of his ass in his struggles in the grass and his hitoe was still hanging open, but he seemed unmindful of his exposure as he concentrated on keeping his stomach covered with both his arms and his knees. His hair was in total disarray and his head was bowed, though he was sure to keep his eye on Sesshoumaru at all times. Despite his low growls, he was clearly afraid of what the youkai would do.

 

It made him sick with guilt.

 

Abruptly, Sesshoumaru bent down and picked the hanyo back up, bracing his hands across the back of his shoulders and under his knees. Immediately the hanyo and the kitsune began to cry out louder in fear.

 

“Silence,” the prince ordered. Immediately the kit was silent. His mate's growls only lessened in volume but did not cease altogether.

 

“Kit, you will make your way back to camp. We will be back by nightfall,” Sesshoumaru announced. With that he turned on his heel and made his way back to the river.

 

In his arms, the hanyo began to struggle, though he was weakened with hunger. His growls began to become interspersed with whines, perhaps thinking the daiyoukai was taking him away to harm him or his baby. It was disheartening to see Inuyasha like this. He had never seen his half-brother like this. Despite all of his many enthusiastic attempts at destroying him, his heart lurched at the realization that it had been his cruel words and brutal actions that had fostered this in his brother.

 

“Hush, mate, I will not harm you,” he soothed.

 

Inuyasha quieted, more in shock than obedience. Sesshoumaru had never once referred to him in any way that was not derogatory. Hearing the title “mate” from his lips was unexpected enough to silence him, at least for now.

 

The Prince of the Western lands quickly brought his mate to the cool rushing waters of the river. Without speaking further, the youkai lowered himself to the ground, sitting cross-legged in tall grasses that lined the side of the water. He sat the hanyo in his lap, settling him across him and bracing him against his chest.

 

Inuyasha swung his head widely back and forth, still in flight of fight mode, and his frightened whines began again, unsure of the daiyoukai's intentions.

 

“Hush,” Sesshoumaru urged again, “calm yourself.”

 

He ran his fingers up from where he held the hanyo’s shoulders to the nape of his neck. He caressed the supple skin and lightly ran his claws through the hair there. His other hand, freed from under Inuyasha's knees, was settled on the hanyo’s chest. It was as much a gesture of comfort and intimacy as an effort to hold the frightened hanyo in place.

 

Now thoroughly confused, as the youkai had never once in his lifetime treated him with anything close to kindness or tenderness, Inuyasha looked up at Sesshoumaru with his wide golden eyes. Sesshoumaru gazed back, pained by the abject fear and resignation he saw there.

 

“You are an uke,” Sesshoumaru began. He saw by the lack of response that it was something the hanyo had already known. So, would not have to explain it to him after all. “I was unaware of this.”

 

Sesshoumaru looked away, staring into the rushing waters as it passed. He did not know what else to say. That he had been wrong? That he had been unfairly cruel? It was not in him to do so, no matter how warranted it was. His acknowledgement of his mistake was the closest he would come to apologizing to the hanyo.

 

For now, Sesshoumaru had brought him here for a reason. He needed to wash his mate clean of Sesshoumaru's, mistakes. The daiyoukai felt as if he had tainted his mate and their union with his petty viciousness and cruel shortsightedness. With slow movements, he began to strip away the ripped fabric of his mate's fire rat hitoe.

 

“What-what are you doing?!” Inuyasha finally spoke, his embarrassment bringing the familiar bark back into his voice. The seme's actions seemed to have brought the hanyo’s attention back to his exposed state as he scrambled to cover his cock with his hand and cross his arm over his uncovered chest.

 

“Silence, mate. Let me bathe you,” Sesshoumaru ordered with a gentle but firm tone.

 

There was that “mate” again. Inuyasha was still perplexed by the youkai's shift in attitude. He had guessed that Sesshoumaru would have killed him immediately the moment when he heard that Inuyasha was carrying their pups. His sudden lack of any kind of anger or hatred towards him was confusing to say the least.

 

He supposed that Sesshoumaru's admitting that he had been ignorant of his status as an uke had something to do with it. Inuyasha was confused as to how it would have mattered if the daiyoukai had known. Sesshoumaru had never bothered to inform the hanyo why he was so angry with him. Inuyasha had just assumed it was for the same reason that the inu had always hated him- because he was a hanyo.

In his confusion, he was unresisting to the youkai's continued efforts to disrobe him.

Sesshoumaru slipped his hands down the smooth skin of his shoulders and biceps as he slipped the cloth from his arms. He then turned to the pair of hakama that pooled around his thighs and soon dropped them to the ground.

 

Inuyasha silently watched with ever widening eyes as the daiyoukai began to strip off his own kimono. He eyed the broad expanse of pale hard muscle as Sesshoumaru bared his chest and slammed his eyes closed as he dropped his hakama.

 

He shivered again with fear. Was Sesshoumaru going to rut with him again? The last time had been one of the most frightening experiences of his life. It almost over shadowed the intense physical sensations had had felt at the time. Almost. His body began to burn from the sight of his mate naked and strong before him. He could feel wetness gather at his entrance and his cock twitched in interest under the hand that he was using to cover it. Still, he was not sure if he wanted to go through that again.

 

Sesshoumaru was not ignorant to his mate's struggles. He could smell the hot musk of his arousal from where he stood. However, he was still focused on his main goal. He had no right to bed his mate after he had sullied their mating. They needed to be clean.

 

He pulled his mate up from the ground. The hanyo over balanced and slammed into his hard body, sliding his delicious skin against his own. He wrapped his arm around the hanyo and guided him to the water, ignoring the pleasant sensation. He directed his mate to kneel in the shallow water and he did the same beside him. It lapped at their thighs, rising only a few inches high. He dipped his own obi into the water and began to wipe it on the flushed skin of the hanyo’s neck and chest.

 

The hanyo gave out a shivery sigh, the water cool against his skin, enflamed with embarrassment and desire. He gasped when his seme's hands trailed lower. However, the youkai's hands never deviated from a strictly platonic cleansing, though Inuyasha's faced flamed as he saw his seme's cock, hard and red, bob above the water.

 

Sesshoumaru continued to ritualistically wash their conflict away until even the hanyo’s clawed toes had been swiped with the silky fabric. Finally, he laid the soaked obi aside, comforted by the sight of his mate's glistening skin. However, when he met his mate's eyes, all he saw was confusion, remembered pain, and hurt.

Without pausing he glided his hands back up from his mate's feet, up his hard-muscled shins and over his sinewy thighs. Inuyasha gasped at the sensation, Sesshoumaru's hands burning a trail up his legs.

 

Like he had the day after their mating, Sesshoumaru was overwhelmed with the urge to heal his mate. He had hurt his mate deeply, both physically and emotionally. He did not deserve to have a mate as it stood. Inuyasha's current hurts were strictly inside of him, but that did not stop Sesshoumaru's instinctual urging to sooth him, to heal him.

 

Like the last time, he began to lick at his mate's skin, trying to sooth his mate's aches with his healing saliva. Immediately, Inuyasha gasped and arched under him as he lapped at the skin of his neck, dragging his rough tongue over the sensitive mating mark. Sesshoumaru was assaulted by the instantaneous scent of his mate's arousal.

 

The daiyoukai licked down that slender pale neck to his chest. This is where his mate was hurt the worst; he lapped at the muscle over his mate's heart. Inuyasha's hips bucked when his tongue passed over a stiffened nipple.

 

“Mmm,” Inuyasha sighed.

 

Sesshoumaru was hard as a rock, listening to his mate as heat surrounded them. His sizable cock dribbled pre-cum onto Inuyasha's hard belly as he continued licking at the sensitive nubs, switching from the left side to the right and back again. His hands ran over his mate's perfectly soft white skin, running down his sides, over his ribs and the small hills of muscle, to rest on his slender hips.

 

Inuyasha echoed Sesshoumaru's hardness, his cock flushed purple and a bead of pre-cum swelled on the cock head. His face was flushed, a beautiful blush painted across his cheeks as he sighed his pleasure. He felt as if his skin had become super sensitive, leaving his mind drowning in sensations, unable to think about their past or their future. He only saw the now. He only saw the stunningly hansom youkai that loomed over him, sucking on his nipples, and was making him feel a thousand kinds of pleasure in each touch.

 

Sesshoumaru's hands continued their downward path curving around to cup the flesh of his rounded ass. They squeezed lightly, causing Inuyasha to exhale harshly in surprised pleasure. His hole clenched as he was forced to remember what it had felt like to be filled by Sesshoumaru.

 

The youkai's long fingers rubbed down his cleft as Sesshoumaru distracted him with a searing kiss. Inuyasha moaned into the lord's mouth as his mouth was invaded. They had never kissed and Inuyasha was thrilled down to his toes. Sesshoumaru drank from him greedily, mapping out every part of his mouth and tasting him for the first time.

 

Meanwhile, his fingers brushed lightly over the hanyo’s twitching entrance. His mate was wet for him, his passage lubed with the uke's natural juices. He teased and tickled the clenching muscles eager to play with them. The prince dipped a finger inside, pushing it in as far as he could. He thanked the gods for Inuyasha's natural ability to stretch; he would not have to spend much time on stretching the hanyo in order to be able to enter him. He was already nearing his limit as the hanyo writhed in pleasure beneath him. A second finger joined the first and he pushed them in and out of the hanyo. Inuyasha arched at the action, automatically spreading his legs wide and presenting himself completely to his seme.

 

That was all Sesshoumaru needed; it was all he could  _take_. Quickly he removed his fingers and aligned his throbbing cock to the twitching pucker. He thrust home in one go.

 

“OHHH!” Inuyasha moaned loudly, drowning out Sesshoumaru's pleasured grunt. He felt his heartbeat match the throbbing cock in his greedy hole as Sesshoumaru's thick member spread him wide and filled him deliciously. Just as the first time, the sensation felt right. It felt like a part of him that had been missing was now back in place.

 

Sesshoumaru immediately began to piston his hips, slamming his thick cock into the hanyo, his balls slapping on his enticing backside. He knew he would not last as long as he wanted to, as long as Inuyasha deserved to be pleasured, especially as Inuyasha locked his arms around his neck and cried out those beautiful sounds in his pointed ear.

 

“Oh, Gods!” Inuyasha exclaimed as Sesshoumaru grabbed his pulsating member and began to stroke it in time to his thrusts. Inuyasha had never been touched there by another person before. He would have been surprised at how much  _more_  it was in the hand of another, if he had been able to think at all. As it was, it only took three pulls on his cock and Inuyasha was coming in torrents over his belly and Sesshoumaru's hand.

 

“Ahhhuungh!” he screamed, feeling his balls empty at the same time as his passage was flooded with Sesshoumaru's seed. The youkai thrust punishingly into him as he filled his mate with his hot cum and growled his climax into the hanyo’s neck, biting hard at his mating mark without breaking the skin.

 

Sated, the daiyoukai slumped on top of his mate, feeling warm and lethargic and  _right_  with his uke beneath him. This is where Inuyasha should have been all along. His mate would always be out of place unless he was balls deep within Inuyasha, cum dribbling from his abused hole, and pressed against him, panting and flushed.

 

In his post orgasmic euphoria, Inuyasha was inclined to agree.


	5. Interloper

**Chapter**   **5: Interloper**

 

Inuyasha walked sedately beside his mate as they marched through the thinning forest. Ever since the revelation of Inuyasha's pregnancy, Sesshoumaru had insisted that Inuyasha be close at all times. It was a situation Inuyasha was wary of, as he waited for the other shoe to drop.

 

Inuyasha was more than a little confused about his situation with Sesshoumaru. That night by the river, they had lain on the bank, Inuyasha dozing against the larger inu's chest and pleasantly sore until the stars had come out. At some unseen signal, Sesshoumaru had decided that it was time to go back to camp.

 

Upon their return, Shippo had shot into his arms, his worry evident in the way he clung silently to Inuyasha's red robes. The hanyo knew the young kit must have been truly frightened for him as he cuddled and trembled lightly against him. Inuyasha shushed him and ran his hands down the kit's back as he made to find a place to sit and spend time with the frightened child in a tree at the edge of camp that he had spotted, when he was unceremoniously tugged down to the ground by a hand on his arm.

 

He snapped his head in the direction of his assailant only to find that it had been Sesshoumaru. The Daiyoukai simply stared at him, daring Inuyasha to protest. Inuyasha quickly assumed a submissive posture, hunching his shoulders and lowering his eyes to the ground and pinning his ears back to his head. Once he could no longer feel his brother's eyes on him, he made himself comfortable leaning against the fallen log his brother was seated on. He rubbed the kit's back until the little one was calm enough to ask all the questions that he had been holding in about Inuyasha being pregnant until he had fallen asleep, his little head resting on the still flat stomach of his acting big brother/father figure.

 

Since then Sesshoumaru had silently stood vigil at his side. The older youkai always demanded that Inuyasha stay close to him or ordered him to stay put in their makeshift camp. The insults had dropped off dramatically and there were no snarls or looks of rage and hatred.

 

Not that Inuyasha would let his guard down for a minute. No, Inuyasha was not falling for that. His brother still looked at him with his infuriating blankness. Inuyasha had never been able to read what was going on behind his brother’s stoic mask. He just assumed that Sesshoumaru was just reluctant to risk harming the life within him. He was certainly not deluded enough to believe the youkai had had a sudden change of heart about his status as a stain upon the earth. Still, he had not touched Inuyasha like he had by the river again, yet there were often gentle and fleeting touches out of nowhere; a hand on the small of his back, or fingers feathering over the nape of his neck.

 

It all combined to leave one very confused hanyo.

 

Sesshoumaru was feeling much the same. He had finally allowed that  _maybe_  his inner youkai was right. He loosened his tight hold on himself and allowed himself to give in to his instincts… on some things. The most notable of those instincts was the one that demanded that his pregnant mate close at hand in order to properly protect him. It would drive him quietly mad to not have his mate within sight at all times in this vulnerable time.

 

With that relinquishment of absolute control, other less necessary feelings sprang to the surface. Hunger for his little mate bubbled up from his youkai depths and battled his ingrained prejudices. Now that he had acknowledged his younger brother as his mate sexually, it seemed that everything about the hanyo evoked hot bolts of lust to shoot through his body and straight to his ever-ready member.

 

His little mate was fit and healthy, a fact confirmed in his every strong and powerful movement. The sight of the hanyo’s hips swinging as he walked, an act of seduction wholly subconscious on Inuyasha's part, drove Sesshoumaru to distraction all day. Inuyasha's scent overwhelmed the daiyoukai, flavored as it was with the warmth of pregnancy.

 

Sesshoumaru had more than once caught himself reaching out to touch Inuyasha's soft looking and oh so fragrant wisps of clean white hair, or staring at him with desire.

 

It always put him in a bad mood.

 

He could not even explain to himself how he could desire such a creature as a hanyo, let alone come up with a convincing story for his council. He was disgusted with himself for his perversion; to find such an abomination attractive. Though, he had to admit (even to himself!) that Inuyasha truly wasn't at fault. His uke nature left him helpless to a powerful and worthy seme such as Sesshoumaru. The fact that to have become an uke, Inuyasha would have had to hold all of the most desirable traits one looks for in a breeding mate, such as health, beauty, and strength only made his inner struggle all the more complicated. Could Inuyasha truly be a coveted uke and still be an abomination? How was Sesshoumaru supposed to deal with that?

 

With that line of thought, Sesshoumaru decided that that would be what he would tell the council, even if he wasn't sure if he believed it himself.

 

It was a good thing, though that he had settled the matter because the Daiyoukai knew that he and his band were nearing the royal territories. Beside him, Inuyasha stiffened and crouched slightly, reaching one hand up to brace the kitsune riding on his shoulder, and placing the other of the hilt of his sword. His ears flicked forward at a distant sound of someone approaching. Sesshoumaru, who knew well who was approaching, retained his stoic mask and regal stride. Neither was conscious of how the older youkai automatically took position slightly in front of the pregnant hanyo, or how Inuyasha kept a step closer to his seme.

 

Inuyasha's eyes flickered up to Sesshoumaru without his consent, looking to him to see if he sensed any danger, and relaxed slightly at his lack of concern. He did not, however, fully let down his guard. He could hear many youkai approaching at a jog and he had no trouble believing that Sesshoumaru would find an angry mob nothing to be concerned about while not putting any effort into stopping them if they decided that a hanyo was an easier target for attack.

 

Out of the woods, however, emerged a band of Ashigaru, foot soldiers uniformed in red tatami chest armor and jingasa* helmets. Upon seeing Sesshoumaru, the group froze and straightened.

 

“My Lord!” the one in front called out in surprise. That one was summarily pushed aside by a much bigger youkai who had come up behind him. This one's uniform was decorated with a dark blue sash tied around his waist. Inuyasha knew enough that the red of their uniforms signified their affiliation with the Seiyou Inu* kingdom, the dynasty of their father and forefathers. The blue was the color of the moon that decorated Sesshoumaru's forehead and represented his connection to the house of the moon, or the noble house of his mother's family.

 

Inuyasha scowled at the daiyoukai's back. The bastard hadn't said anything about the fact that they were nearly to their destination. Granted, the bastard hadn't said much of anything since That Night, not that he was the most talkative guy anyway.

 

His scowl lessened, however when he felt a tiny clawed hand on his cheek and looked down into large concerned eyes that peaked at him from where Shippo had bent over from his position on his shoulder to see Inuyasha's face. “What's wrong, Inuyasha? Who are those guys?”

 

“Nothin's wrong, squirt,” he mumbled, “I guess those guys are Sesshoumaru's castle guards and we're almost to his place.”

 

“Oh,” Shippo responded, sounding as if he had a million more questions lurking behind that one sound. He knew, though that Inuyasha didn't like it when he asked so many questions at once and always told him to just pay attention and learn instead, even when he was in a good mood. Now, however, he could tell that Inuyasha was definitely not in a good mood, nor was it the right time to bother him, if the tension he could feel through his feet in the hanyo’s shoulders were any indication.

 

Ahead of them, the lead guard made a fist and pressed it to his chest as he bowed before Sesshoumaru. “It is good to have you home, Sesshoumaru-sama,” he said

 

Sesshoumaru merely inclined his head and asked in an uninterested voice, “All is well at the gates, Constable Yo?”

 

“Yes, My Lord, all is well. Shall we escort you and-,” the constable paused to throw and slightly hostile glance back at the hanyo, “- your traveling companions to the castle.”

 

Sesshoumaru again only inclined his head in affirmation, before walking on, knowing that all would follow after him.

 

The constable accompanied his lord walking beside him, while the rest of the troops formed a protective ring around the hanyo, kappa and dragon travelers. Inuyasha wondered just who was being protected, the travelers from would be assassins or the people of the approaching town form the  _monstrous_  hanyo, as a majority of the guards seemed to have gathered close to him. He certainly didn't miss the barely restrained animosity in their warning glances and subtle attempts at intimidation. He fought off the urge to call them on it (with his fists), knowing that it would only lead to far more trouble than he could handle at the moment.

 

Inuyasha's unease, which had been rising throughout the day, tripled at the sight of the magnificent castle in the distance. Sesshoumaru walked tall and confident with long strides ahead of him with the captain of the castle guards next to him, the shorter and more bulkily muscled bear youkai having no trouble keeping up. Inuyasha had not lived in such a heavily populated place since he was but a pup, living with his mother's human family at their estate, and even then, the two of them had kept mostly to themselves and away from the fear and loathing that looked out at them from many of the faces they saw. Inuyasha was not sure he was prepared to face the amount of scorn and ire he would come across in a place with as many people that lived within the castle let alone the surrounding castle town, especially if the reaction from the castle guards were any indication.

 

Within moments, they had reached the gates of the cobbled-stoned walls that surrounded the jokamachi*. About a mile into the town stood the impressively massive castle, appearing to be watching over its charges in the distance. Inside the gates, the town was a crowded metropolis. The small wooden buildings packed onto cramped blocks along narrow roads. The markets bustled with activity, shops offered every kind of service and stalls showed off brightly colored foods on offer to the equally brightly dressed patrons.

 

Inuyasha noticed little of this. His attention was on the increasing amount of attention he was attracting from the gathered people. He knew that most of it was not actually directed at him, he was traveling down the road with the Lord of the Western lands after all. Another part, was the fact that he was so obviously related to their Lord as well. However, the years of being glared at, ostracized, and run out of town had conditioned him to be wary of any attention, and while  _most_  of the attention was not directed at him specifically, he made note of every pair of eyes that swung to his furred ears. He knew from experience that it would not take long for news to spread of the hanyo that traveled with the lord. What that meant for him, considering that he was mated to said lord and pregnant with his pup, he did not know.

 

With the last of his nerves fraying, the group finally made it to the castle grounds. The building was elevated on a hill separated from the jokamachi by a winding mote. The castle itself was built on a large stone base. The castle was in fact an interconnected complex of 23 buildings, including storage, stables, servant's quarters, towers, and an elaborate hall to conduct the business of ruling the Western lands. The tallest and primary living quarters was four stories high and sat in the center and highest point of the bailey.

 

Inuyasha was awed, having never been this close to a castle before and never even seeing one this big.

 

Immediately upon entering the main castle, servants met them at the entrance way.

“Sesshoumaru-sama! Welcome home,” the serving girls bowed low before the Lord of the Western Lands.

 

Sesshoumaru ignored their greeting and with a dismissive wave toward Inuyasha ordered, “Take the hanyo and his kit and get them settled into a room. I have duties to attend to.” Without giving Inuyasha second look, he turned and made his way to a building across the courtyard.

 

Inuyasha stared after him in disbelief. The bastard had just dumped them on the servants and left! He couldn't dwell on the retreating back of his brother for long as one of the servant women straightened, holding herself tall and clasping her hands in front of her. “Come along then,” she snapped with hints of exasperation and resignation in her voice. Her lips pursed and she glanced down her nose at him in matronly disapproval, as if addressing him were one of her more distasteful duties, right up there with emptying bed pans and raking out the pig pens.

 

Inuyasha tiredly followed the woman, who walked as if she were trying to lose him in the maze of hallways. The growth of a pup within him was taking its toll on his body, causing aches and pains and leaving him more tired at the end of a day of journeying than he usually felt after a good fight. He imagined how wonderful it would feel to soak in a hot spring right then and almost groaned.

 

The servant woman finally stopped before a door at the end of a long hallway and held open the door. Inuyasha walked past her into the room and whirled around as the door slammed shut behind him. He snarled in anger as he tugged at the door only to find it was securely locked. He gave it a final petulant thump before turning and leaning tiredly on it.

 

“Inuyasha! How're we gonna get out of here?!” Shippo squeaked, grasping a fistful of Inuyasha's hair tightly in fear.

 

Inuyasha sighed. “I don't know Shippo, but I ain't gonna try again until I get some rest,” he said sullenly.

 

Sesshoumaru's words rang in his ears. “The hanyo” he had called him, as if he were old dirty robes to be taken care of when Sesshoumaru returned from his journeys. Inuyasha smirked without pleasure to himself. He had called it, hadn't he? He knew he could never trust that asshole. He knew that he would be in a bad situation once they reached the castle, once they were safely ensconced within Sesshoumaru's territories. Not that he was much safer anywhere else, but there was now no one to turn to and it was going to be much harder to escape the scorn for even a little while.

 

He stood to find someplace to sleep. His demon eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. They were in a bedroom, to Inuyasha's relief, though it had obviously not seen visitors in a great while. It seemed to be a room that had been used to store old or extra furniture, as there were about five tables stacked in one corner and a couple dusty and broken chairs in front of the empty fireplace.

 

Inuyasha wanted to be angry and affronted, but he had slept in  _trees_  for the past 150 years, so this was hardly the worst conditions he had ever been dealt. He tugged Shippo from his shoulder and climbed on the bed. He curled on his side, pulling the kit to his chest. Shippo nestled into his chest and sniffed the reassuring scent of his caretaker. The kit, having Demon energy without the drain of pregnancy was not nearly as tired as the hanyo, and so pulled his tiny fingers through Inuyasha's silky hair quietly as Inuyasha settled into slumber.

 

~*~

 

Despite appearances, Sesshoumaru's mind was focused mainly on Inuyasha as he walked away from him, to his rising indignation. His youkai snarled at him to go back and make sure his mate was unharmed and comfortable. A happy mate was healthy mate, it protested. Yet Sesshoumaru continued, pace unabated, to the Lord's Building. It was so called because it was the building that most of the lordly duties were carried out in. There, his royal study, the offices of his council and other administrators, the war room, the Diplomat's Hall, and the informal meeting room, were stationed. He quickly made his way to his study.

 

Sesshoumaru could not afford to look weak at this precarious time. When he introduced Inuyasha as his mate, he would come under a lot of scrutiny, not because he was a hanyo- well not  _only_  because he was a hanyo- but because before now Sesshoumaru had been one of the most strident supporters of anti hanyo sentiment. This would obviously be a sudden and extreme turn around in attitude. Sesshoumaru worried that it would make him appear indecisive and weak willed, which could lead to political opposition within the council.

 

He settled himself behind his well-used office chair, and if he were alone in the chamber, he would have sighed at the stacks of scrolls piled on his desk for him to read through and sign. As it was, there were already a gaggle of administrators in his study waiting for an audience with him over some matter or another. It would be a long time until he would be free of them.

 

Sesshoumaru, not needing much sleep, worked through the night. By the next afternoon, he had made an acceptable dent in his paper work and was now listening to one of his councilors, Sanmi-san. The rabbit yokai was one of his favorite councilors. The older woman was mature but still a great beauty, with powder blue hair and nearly white silver eyes that shown with wisdom and kindness. She was always fair and even-tempered; giving each issue due thought and consideration, even if that meant her decisions directly contradicted her Lord Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru felt a respect for the councilwoman that he rarely bestowed on anyone else and was almost a friend.

 

“My Lord, I have received notice from Lord Tokagefumi that he and his brother will be visiting when the sakura zensen* reaches the Western lands for the festival,” she announced. She smiled faintly behind her sleeve covered hand as Sesshoumaru's eyes darkened. Sanmi shared Sesshoumaru's dislike of the Lord of the Western Fuji. He always made up some inane reason to come to the Western Lands to pick at the Western Lord and sound out any weaknesses, always looking for a way to gain power. As the Fuji territories did not have many cherry blossom trees, Tokagefumi was using the traditional bloom viewing season as an excuse to visit.

 

“Can we think of nothing to persuade that lowly idiot from coming? Perhaps we can declare war on someone before then?” he growled.

 

Sanmi gave a tinkling laugh and snapped her fan open. “No, sire, I think not.”

Sesshoumaru, however almost scowled as his youkai suddenly reminded him that his mate would be heavily pregnant by then. Tokagefumi would certainly have something to say about his hanyo mate; perhaps even find a way to start some trouble. He growled low in his chest at the thought and stood abruptly from his seat. The much shorter rabbit demon gathered her grass-green silk robe about her and rose to bow before him, knowing that she was being dismissed.

 

“Very well, Sanmi-san. I will write to him tomorrow after the council gathering. I must go now,” he forced out from clenched teeth. His youkai urged him to go to his mate. He had been away from him too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you need a visual for the castle, google Himeji Castle, though I imagine my castle is significantly smaller.
> 
> jingasa *- conical hats made of lacquered hardened leather
> 
> Seiyou Inu*- this is just one of the results I got when I used google translate to figure out how to say Western Dog in Japanese, so if it's wrong… well, sorry about that.
> 
> jokamachi*- "town below castle"
> 
> sakura zensen*- Cherry Blossom front. wiki it!


	6. Restore

**Chapter 6** **-** **Restore**

 

Inuyasha was still sitting in the dark and dusty room late the next afternoon. His empty stomach growled eagerly as he waited on the dusty bed for the kit to return. Upon waking up to a streak of sunlight in his eyes, Inuyasha and Shippo had realized that they could use the window to escape and gather food. Their excitement was subdued, however, when they tried to open it and found that it stuck and only Shippo would be able to fit through. So, Shippo slipped through the window in search of something to feed them.

 

Inuyasha wasn't overly worried about not being able to go out with the kit. He had taught him well in the little time they had had together. Shippo would be fine, even if he got into trouble; Inuyasha had taught him what to do. No, what Inuyasha was worried about was what he was going to do if no one came for them for a long time. 

 

In the light of day and without the cloud of exhaustion, Inuyasha took the chance to take in his surroundings. They had been locked in a simple room, most certainly not one of the more ornate royal rooms. It was square with a fireplace and walls decorated with a large tapestry and carvings of dog demons and other symbols of the royal family. While it maintained the standard furniture for a bedroom- bed, small table, wardrobe- it was also cluttered with spare and broken things. Everything was covered in dust and it was clear that this was a room used for the storage of unwanted things and not much else.

 

Inuyasha sneered into the murky light that peeked in through the dusty window. How fitting!

 

But unlike the royal rooms, there was no bathroom attached and because it was a storage room, there were no bedpans. That was especially unfortunate because Inuyasha could feel his nausea building in his belly. There was also the problem of food. With only little Shippo to hunt and gather, the poor kit would have to be out all day to get enough for both of them. He had never actually hunted anything on his own yet, so they would be living off of whatever berries or the like that he could find. It normally wouldn't have been such a problem as Inuyasha could go days without eating and be fine, but Inuyasha's situation being what it was, he needed to eat every day now.

 

Inuyasha sighed. Couldn't he ever catch a break?! He grumbled wordlessly to himself as he succumbed to a nap, his body still recovering from the trauma of mating, pregnancy, stress, and the long journey into enemy territories.

 

~*~

 

Sesshoumaru growled lightly when he entered the royal wing and did not smell his mate. He checked all five of the rooms but the hanyo was in none of them. Sesshoumaru restrained the urge to let out an aggrieved huff and walked back to the main entrance. Once there he could still smell the pungent scent of his mate hanging in the air. His brow raised on his forehead as he followed the scent to the left, the direction of the guest rooms. He was not pleased about that but he supposed he never said anything about putting Inuyasha in the royal wing.

 

His brows furrowed however as the scent took him farther and farther through the halls, taking him away from the guest rooms and towards the utility rooms. He growled low and deep in his throat when his mate's smell seemed to have gathered in one of the storage rooms. His anger gathered and built as he neared the last room in the hallway, but was halted at the sounds from within. There was a creak and a shuffle.

 

"Inuyasha! Wake up!" squeaked a voice that could only have been the little kitsune. "Eww! It smells in here!"

 

The only response was a sound that was a mix between a moan and a sound of confirmation.

 

"Oh, Inuyasha," the kit said, his voice having dropped into a comforting tone, "Did you get sick again? Do you want some of these nuts I found?"

 

"Not right now, kid," Inuyasha's voice answered tiredly.

 

"Maybe I can go back out the window and try and find someone who will help? Or at least open the door?" the kit asked.

 

By then, Sesshoumaru had heard enough. He tried to open the door only to find it locked from the outside. He could feel his eyes bleeding red as his youkai roared in outrage in his head. He bypassed the locked door by blasting through it. He ignored the startled yelps of the kit and his mate as he took in the state of the room, the broken furniture, the layers of dust and the half-dried puddle of sick by the side of the bed- evidence that there had been no one in to attend to his mate.

 

He snarled in anger, before turning to his mate. 

 

Inuyasha held the shaking kitsune in his arms, trying to stifle his own trembling and keeping his eyes down and ears pinned to his head in submission, both afraid that the Daiyoukai would turn that anger on them next.

 

Faster than Inuyasha could see, Sesshoumaru was there before him and hoisting the both of them into his arms. Without a word, they were rushing down the hallways and through various large chambers until they reached the main corridor. 

 

In the whirl of motion, all Inuyasha knew was that it was doing nothing for his nausea. He couldn't keep a nearly silent groan from escaping when he was placed a little too roughly on a big, soft bed. All thoughts of his ills disappeared when the dominate youkai's red eyes flashed at the sound and the daiyoukai stood tall and menacing over them. He stared intently at the hanyo, searching him for injury before he began to move onto the bed.

 

Inuyasha didn't hesitate and gave Shippo a little push. "Go, Ship, get out of here. Go find something to do."

 

"But, Inuya-,"

 

"GO Shippo!"

 

The kitsune scampered off, pausing to look back at them at the door, only to see the two inus' eyes locked on each other, Sesshoumaru's eyes predatory while Inuyasha's were wide with fear.

 

Inuyasha flinched as Sesshoumaru slowly leaned down and crawled on the bed, his eye roving the hanyo's body and his nose sniffing. He pressed himself as far as he could down into the mattress as Sesshoumaru crawled closer until the youkai was braced over him. He looked up with wide eyes, not knowing what his brother wanted. He flinched harder and slammed his eyes shut when Sesshoumaru lifted a hand and placed it on his stomach. The youkai growled; a low satisfied sound.

 

Suddenly the youkai rose up, the red bleeding slowly from his eyes, being pushed down to let rationality take over once again. All the while the dog demon watched the hanyo steadily. Sesshoumaru, back in his right mind, bared his teeth, Inuyasha automatically ducking his head and flattening his ears in response.

 

"You have been locked in that room all night, mate?" Sesshoumaru questioned, though it sounded like a demand. 

 

"Yeah..," Inuyasha answered cautiously, shocked nearly voiceless at hearing Sesshoumaru call him "mate" again. He was still unused to hearing his brother refer to him in any way not derogatory.

 

Without saying another word, the Western Lord spun on his heel and left the room.

 

Stay with him, Sesshoumaru's inner youkai urged him, Comfort mate. Sesshoumaru ignored the urge, using it instead to fuel his anger. 

 

He practically flew back into the main hall, snarling at the first servant he saw and commanding they assemble all of the house servants before him.  His angry youki spread through the halls, ensuring there would be no one stupid enough to dally. Within minutes all of the manorial servants were present and bowing deeply to him.

 

"Do tell me," Sesshoumaru began, the words growled out, evidence of how close he was to releasing his youkai in anger, "Do tell me why it was that my mate was locked into a storage room."

 

Several of the servant women flinched at this announcement, revealing their guilt.

 

"Tell me why your pregnant Lord Consort was not given food or a blanket or a clean room; left to wallow in his own morning sickness!"

 

Now the servants were all expressing silent shock. Pregnant?! The matronly woman who had attended the younger inu paled as she and the rest of the domestics realized exactly what that meant. Not only had she endangered the mate of her Lord, but his heir! Not only was this hanyo her Lord's mated consort, but he was an uke as well!

 

The maid shivered in fear and dropped to her knees, pressing her palms and forehead to the floor. She had seriously wronged the, arguably, second most important person in the Western Lands. When word got out about him being an uke, he would be looked on with glowing respect, he would be the pride of the Western Lands; their Lord had mated with a powerful uke who would bare even more powerful heirs. The Seiyou Inu Dynasty has assured its continued greatness. 

 

And she had locked him in a storage room.

 

The Lord of the Western Lands glared glacially at the woman, nor did he miss the reactions of the women around her, ones who had probably sneered at his mate and laughed at his imprisonment. He could feel his eyes begin to bleed back to red. But first… he turned his piercing gaze to a servant in the back of the gathered demons.

 

"You," he commanded, "Go and attend to your Lord Consort."

 

The servant froze, surprised at being addressed, before sketching a deep bow. "Yes, my Lord" the servant spoke quietly, before walking quickly – yet still as dignified as befitted a servant of the Lord's house – to the royal wing and chambers.

 

~*~

 

Shippo peaked into the room as the daiyoukai left. "Inuyasha?" he squeaked.

 

Inuyasha, not just a little confused by the actions of his brother, shook himself as the kit's voice. "Yeah, come on in, I guess."

 

The little kit scampered up into massive bed, the layers of soft, downy blankets nearly swallowing him up. Inuyasha chuckled quietly as the kitsune squawked and fell over, walking through the bedding as if were quicksand. Seeing he was making his Inuyasha smile, he exaggeratedly tumbled and fell into the bedding, squalling "whoa-whoa-whoa!" in mock fear of falling. He finally reached the inu and slumped with a melodramatic sigh of relief on his lap.

"Phew! I made it!" he announced breathlessly.

 

Inuyasha snorted at his antics, grateful for the moment of levity. 

 

The moment was interrupted however by a knock on the door. "My Lord Consort, may I come in?" 

 

"Uhh," Inuyasha looked confusedly at down at the kit whose own confusion shone back up at him. Lord Consort? Inuyasha set the kit on the bed and got up to answer the door. "Um, no one's in here but me. I think Sesshoumaru went that way," Inuyasha pointed.

 

The figure on the other side of the door blinked marigold colored eyes, ringed thickly in black, at him and shook a stray lock of ink black hair from his face. The figure towered over the smaller inu-hanyo. He was not only tall but solidly built, despite obviously being aged past his physical prime, with a dark blue kimono and faded striped hakama gracefully settled over broad shoulders and a comfortably pudgy belly. The smile lines that accented his striking eyes deepened and a warm smile spread across his rounded and mature face. It was a face that spoke of kindness and care. "You are the Lord's new mate, are you not?" she asked.

 

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Inuyasha shifted his feet.

 

"Well then," he said, pushing the door open and making Inuyasha back up and let him in or be hit in the face with the door, "you are the Lord Consort."

 

"Uh," Inuyasha didn't know what to say to that.

 

"My Lord," the big yokai bowed deeply. "I am Xian-li. I have been tasked by your Lord mate to be your valet today."

 

Inuyasha's eyes widened.

 

"I am to understand that you have not gotten the chance to bathe after your journey. Shall I draw you a bath?" Xian-li waited for only a beat before rising from his bow and making his way to the connected bathing room. He slid open the shoji screen and began to collect a few of the various oils and soaps that decorated the carved shelves that lined the walls.

 

Inuyasha, who had not had time to leave the bed let alone explore the room, sputtered in surprise. He'd never been someplace so luxurious that there was a connected room for bathing. Back when he traveled with Kagome and the gang and they stayed within someone's home or an inn, he was given a basin and rag to use if he was given anything at all. If they were lucky, they would find a hot spring. Back when he lived with his mother at her family's manor, he used the communal bathing house that was filled with large tubs and a fire pit to heat the water.

 

He crept closer to watch the large youkai work in the newly discovered room, Shippo skittering up his clothes to perch again on his shoulder.

 

Xian-li set the various bowls and corked vials on the floor next to a rocky depression in the floor that was large enough to fit at least three seated people. Next, he turned to a raised slab of stone settled on the floor in the center of the room. Shippo gasped when the large youkai slid the stone from its place to reveal the sound of running water and a billow of steam.

 

Inuyasha watched in silence, but inside he was amazed. His ears twitched and swiveled around his head. He hadn't even noticed the almost inaudible noise before, but now that he knew to listen for it he could hear the low hum of water as it ran under his feet. It seemed that there was a fairly large hot spring that ran underneath the castle.

 

Xian-li found a bucket and dipped it into the subterranean water. Hauling it out he poured its contents into the rocky depression that served as the bathing pool, then returned the bucket to the water to gather more. Inuyasha crept closer, the steam rolling out of the tube drawing him closer and instantly soothing his frayed nerves.

 

Xian-li, peaking at the curious inu from under his lashes, smiled. The young pup was certainly beautiful enough to be an uke, and his wide curious eyes and swiveling puppy ears made him only more endearing to the gentle giant. The kit at his shoulder was much more excitable and open. He thought it would be a pleasure to care for a little one again if his Lord allowed him to remain the Lord Consort's caretaker. With the bathing pool now halfway filled, he kneeled at the lip of the tub and reached for one of the vials.

 

"This is lavender oil," he murmured lowly to the two curious onlookers. "It will be relaxing to you." He explained. He poured a healthy dose into the steaming water, then picked up a ceramic bowl with a ground powder inside. he held it up to show them. "And this is sandalwood powder. It will make your skin smooth and bright."

 

Inuyasha warily knelt down at the lip of the pool, maintain a healthy distance from the working youkai, but compelled by his curiosity as he watched more oils and herbs be added to the water.

 

Shippo hopped closer and shook a corked vial experimentally, revealing the liquid inside to be very thick. "What's this one for?"

 

Smiling marigold eyes looked over. "Ah! That one we will not be adding to the water. That is sap from a birch tree. That we will use to cleans your hair. It will leave it very soft and nice smelling."

 

Once the larger youkai was finished with the oils he finished filling the pool with water. Once done he set the bucket aside and stepped toward the kneeling hanyo. Inuyasha scrambled up when he realized the large youkai was coming for him.

 

"Hey!" Inuyasha barked warningly.

 

Xian-li halted with his arms outstretched in a calming motion. "Ah, my Lord Consort! I only mean to help you undress for your bath."

 

"I don't need no help! And I certainly ain't getting undress with you lurking about!"

 

Xian-li only tucked his hands into the wide sleeves of his kimono and smiled gently. He bowed low and unthreateningly as he walked out of the room. "Very well, my Lord. Shall I let you soak for a bit while I get a nice meal for you? I will come back to help you wash your hair."

 

"T'ch! I've been washing myself just fine for a hundred years!" Inuyasha growled, slamming the shoji door closed in the servant's face.

 

Inuyasha's satisfaction was interrupted by a "Whoo-hoo!" and a splash. Spinning, Inuyasha smirked as Shippo popped back up to the surface of the water, skin red from the heat and little legs paddling furiously beneath the steaming water. Inuyasha quickly undressed, leaving his fire rat robe in a pile next to Shippo's clothes and hurried to immerse himself in the soothing waters.

 

~*~

 

Sesshoumaru glided through the halls of the castle surrounded by a cloud of fury. He had had to spend precious hours sternly reprimanding his own servants for being so insolent as to lock up and starve his pregnant mate. Then he had had to have one of them who could still walk fetch him a change of clothes to his study so that he would need to remain covered in blood and acid.

 

After dealing with the brainless help, he had returned to his study. His youkai growled at him to return to his mate, to check that he was being taken care of now, but it had had to wait. He trusted Xian-li to do his duty. Even if the panda youkai did only the barest minimum required, it would be better treatment than Inuyasha had received at the hands of his staff.

 

He growled and paced the room.

 

The situation would need to be handled quickly. Sesshoumaru was aware that the servants were the least of the people who would take one look at his mate and heap abuse on him. He would need to announce their mating tomorrow, get the word out that not only was the hanyo not to be touched but that he was now above them, their Lord Consort.

 

He settled at his table to begin the summons. He knew he would meet resistance, but there was very little his council could do about the situation. Releasing a silent sigh, he put his calligraphy brush down and called for a servant to deliver the handful of small scrolls to their intended recipients. He would deal with the council tomorrow.

 

Looking out the window, he rose from his ornately carved table. It was already the middle of the night. He finally felt it was an expectable time to find his mate.

 

Upon reaching their now shared rooms, he growled low and dangerously. His mate was not there. He sniffed the air and was somewhat mollified to smell that he had been there earlier, for a majority of the day. Following his nose, he searched out his little mate.

 

Three doors down the royal wing of rooms, he found him. As was Inuyasha's want, he was sat against the wall, his arms tucked into the sleeves of his haori, sword resting in his lap, and head bowed in sleep. Further in the room, the kit lay sleeping on a soft feather bed.

 

Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to sneer at his mate, even as his youkai grew smug and proud. The hanyo slept on the floor near the door in a familiar position to guard the sleeping kit. Protect the kit from Sesshoumaru? He did not know, not that it would do the hanyo much good. If the Lord of the Western Lands wanted to take his kit, there would be little the hanyo could do about it, especially in his condition. However, his youkai preened inside his head. His ever-watchful little mate not only was strong and fierce enough to sit guard over his kit, but he had not even stirred at Sesshoumaru's approach. The hanyo was either failing at his guard duty and had fallen deeply asleep, or he in his unconscious mind trusted the youkai he could feel above him and did not deem him threat enough to awaken. Sesshoumaru knew that sleeping in a new place after they had already been treated with hostility, it was most unlikely to be the former.

 

Still, Sesshoumaru was not going to allow his pregnant mate to sleep on the floor if he didn't have to. The youkai bent to pick up the sleeping hanyo. Inuyasha jolted from his touch and his nose flared in unconscious alert, sniffing at the being that had approached him. Inuyasha buried his face into Sesshoumaru's chest as the youkai picked him up, sword and all and carried him to their bed.


	7. Settle

Inuyasha wandered through the complex. It was still early as he had always been an early riser. Checking in on Shippo, Inuyasha saw he was still sleeping in his luxuriously big bed. The young kit unbothered by his new surroundings had fallen to sleep last night after chattering Inuyasha's ear off about his new room and looked unlikely to give up the comfortable nest of blankets and pillows any time soon. Not that Inuyasha couldn’t relate.

Waking up had been warm and soft and slow. Inuyasha’s mind had risen gradually from the depths of sleep like mist. It was a rare and treasured feeling for the inu hanyo. The surface he had slept on was like a pillow and his body had been cocooned in silk and feathers. Inuyasha had sighed, his mind alighting only the vaguest spark of consciousness and had rolled over into the well of warmth.

A _shhh-nick_ had caught his fledgling consciousness and catapulted it to the surface. Inuyasha jack-knifed upright, instantly alert, if not fully awake. He had blearily focused his eyes and swiveled his puppy ears, searching for…something. They landed on the sliding door to the room. Inuyasha had blinked tiredly in realization. The noise, only remembered faintly by his half-conscious mind, had been the door sliding shut. Inuyasha sniffed the air for an intruder and scrunched his nose when all he could smell was the overwhelming scent of Sesshoumaru.

He had been in his brother’s bedroom, decidedly not where he had remembered falling asleep the night before. Red suffused his cheeks and the hanyo scowled at nothing in particular. The bastard must have dragged him in here from Shippo’s room. Inuyasha didn’t remember a thing about it, which meant that he had remained asleep. Asleep when that bastard had been lurking around while Inuyasha had been at his most vulnerable.

Inuyasha’s scowl had taken on a more confused cast. How had he not been instantly awake when his brother approached? His life until now had not been easy, to say the least. He had trained himself from very early on in his time alone in the forests to always be alert to the sounds, scents and youkai around him, awake or not. Forewarned was forearmed, after all, especially with his brother. With Sesshoumaru especially, he could often simply _feel_ that Sesshoumaru was approaching and be wide awake and ready to defend himself by the time the youkai reached him. Yet, it seemed that despite all of his training and all of his previous experience, his instincts didn’t bother to inform him when Sesshoumaru was near last night. In fact, Inuyasha could smell, that the youkai had spent the entire night lying beside him on the bed, or at least in the room, without Inuyasha stirring once. 

Inuyasha had swallowed his apprehension. He was sure it had to do with the fact that he was stuck with him as his seme. An image of the youkai’s face when he had reassured himself that Inuyasha had been ok after being locked in the spare room flashed in his mind. Sesshoumaru had been overcome by his youkai instincts at the time and unable to hide behind his icy mask. Fierce concern then satisfied relief had chased across his face, sparking reluctant warmth in Inuyasha’s chest. The sound of Sesshoumaru calling him “mate” in his low voice rang through his head like the reverberating hum of a massive bell. The feel of the youkai’s hands gliding over the hanyo’s body, as they did on the riverbank, ghosted over the hanyo’s skin.

Clearly, he was still asleep, his mind coming up with all kinds of ridiculous ideas. Hoping to distract himself with the start of his day, he had made to rise. He yelped when he attempted to extract himself from the bed only to discover he had cocooned himself in the ridiculously comfortable blankets and fell to the floor.

Inuyasha squeezed his eyes closed tightly and tried to shake the thoughts of this morning from his head.

Most of the castle's workers were just beginning the day's tasks. Inuyasha stayed pointedly out of the way of everyone. He had spent a lifetime learning how to stay out of people's notice and he had already learned the lesson of just how he would be regarded here by the castle workers yesterday. He wasn't eager to put himself in that position again.

The castle was a large complex, far larger than it had looked when they had arrived, and even then, Inuyasha had been able to see that it was the biggest building he had ever seen. At its tallest, the castle was six stories high, an incredible sight for someone used to the low huts, two story family dwellings, and spread out manors of country villages and lordly estates. The castle grounds were full as well with all the ancillary activities that kept the castle going, such as the blacksmith, stables, and dragon pen. Inuyasha paused at the latter to shovel some feed into Ah-Un's pen and give the great beast a pat on the flank. He hadn't interacted much with the two-headed dragon on their journey, but Inuyasha figured that it never hurt to have a dragon on your side when things got rough.

After that, Inuyasha followed the sound of hammering that could be heard coming from the far side of the castle. Back in Kaede-baba’s village, Inuyasha had frequently been asked to help the weaker humans with maintaining the village. They would have him do the climbing and the heavy lifting. It had come to be something Inuyasha hadn't really minded doing. It was good hard work and the villagers seemed to appreciate him living amongst them more, looked at him with a little less disdain. Besides that, it had been kind of satisfying to help create things with his hands.

Therefore, he slowly made his way toward the commotion of builders at work.

Upon reaching the space, his ears perked in puppyish curiosity. Ten builders were hard at work at building... something. Whatever it was shaping up to be, it was going to be a big job.

"Oi!" A voice called down from the scaffolding above.

Inuyasha automatically scowled up at the builder.

"Quit standing around, down there!" The builder glared down at him. "Bring up some more boards! And my saw! Don't forget my saw!"

Inuyasha looked around him in surprise, noting the pile of boards and a small hand saw. Shrugging he collected the load and began to climb.

 

~*~

 

Xian-li's feet padded softly on the wooden floors as he made his way down the royal hall. He lightly knocked on the young kit’s door. He had already attempted to raise the Lord Consort, only to find him not in residence. He hoped the youngest inu would be together with his little one.

The young kit was alone when he reached it. Xian-li sighed, knowing he would now need to go searching for the high-spirited inu. Before he could leave, however, the small form being swallowed up by the massive bed heaved a sigh and began to stir.

“Good Morning, Little Master,” Xian-li called as he fully entered the room.

“Morning, Xian-li-san,” Shippo mumbled sleepily.

“Come on, up, up, up!” Xian-li urged as he lifted the fluffy blankets from the small kit’s body. “We need to find the Lord Consort. He has to prepare for his presentation to the council tonight.”

“Mmmokay,” Shippo said with a yawn. He scampered down the side of the large bed. “Where’s Inuyasha?”

“That’s what we have to find out,” Xian-li restated patiently, guiding the kit out of the room with a gentle hand on his head. “The Lord Consort seems to have taken the morning to explore.”

“Oh, ok,” the kit accepted with a nod. “Maybe he went to the kitchens. Inuyasha always said that when you’re looking for a place to stop for the night, you gotta find food.”

The kit puffed proudly at remembering what his caretaker had been teaching him, before deflating and scrunching his face in confusion. “No, wait. The first thing you have to do is make sure there’s some place safe to hide. _Then_ you find food!”

“Well, the Lord Consort has a bedroom he can stay safely in, so where else should we look? The kitchen still?

“Yeah!” Shippo agreed with an excited wiggle, “And we can get some more of that meat with the sweet sauce on it like last night?”

Xian-li laughed and shepherded the bouncing kit out the door.

After nearly an hour of playfully searching the castle for the youngest inu, Xian-li and Shippo found themselves beginning the search of the outside of the complex. After stopping to let Shippo pet the two-headed dragon that had accompanied them on their journey – Xian-li had had to hold in some very undignified giggles at A-un’s disgruntled snort when Shippo had announced “Look, it’s Uh-oh!” – and watching Shippo stick his nose up at the idea of Inuyasha perhaps getting his sword sharpened – “Inuyasha wouldn’t be there! His sword never gets dull, ‘cus it’s really, really powerful!” – they found themselves in the back where the castle’s shrine was being built.

Approaching the bustling building site, Xian-li was relieved to finally find the missing Lord Consort. Inuyasha stood out easily, his fire-rat robes a slash of crimson among the undyed linen and cotton of the workers. Xian-li was unsure how to feel about the fact that the new, pregnant Lord Consort was working construction on his second day at the castle. The Inu was being gruffly ordered about by the more experienced carpenters, carrying supplies and tools back and forth to those who need them. The panda youkai knew, based on his experience with those willful house servants, that his Lord Sesshoumaru would be incandescent in rage if these lowly carpenters were abusing the Lord Consort, but Inuyasha looked content enough with the treatment. He decided that either way, it was time for it to stop.

“My Lord Consort!” Xian-li called up to the busy inu.

The builders paused in their activity, curious. To their knowledge, Lord Sesshoumaru had not yet taken a consort. Their curiosity turned to ever-growing horror when the red-clad hanyo that had turned up that morning to work turned to look at their visitors and huffed.

“Whatdya want?”

The builders stared and gasped. The hanyo turned to look at them curiously, not at all understanding what the big deal was. The builders averted their eyes respectfully, further bewildering the inu, before he turned back to the panda youkai.

"I must ask you to come back with me to your quarters, Lord Consort.” Growing more than a little amused now that he could see that the Lord Consort was completely clueless about why anyone would care that he was doing construction when he should be pursuing more courtly activities. “We have much to do today!" 

Inuyasha huffed. "I'm busy! That bastard Sesshoumaru send you out here to fetch me?"

The carpenters, frozen on the structure, gasped. One unfortunate worker fell from his perch on a building platform with a thud. 

Inuyasha blinked, startled at the extreme reactions of those around him. "Uh...ok... I guess I've got to go do other stuff." He tried to hand the mallet he was holding to the nearest worker. The worker rushed to take it, bowing as deeply as he was able while sitting precariously on the half-built wooden structure.

“Uh..,” Inuyasha shot the workers a startled, wide-eyed look and scrambled to the ground.

Xian-li pressed his lips together tightly at the bewildered look on the hanyo’s face before he collected himself. He bowed in greeting. “My Lord Consort, Lord Sesshoumaru informed me this morning that he was going to announce your mating to his administrators this evening, so we are to prepare you to look your best.”

Inuyasha crossed his arms and marched away back to the castle, pausing to let Shippo skitter up to sit on his shoulder and grumbling the whole way.

 

~*~

 

An hour later, Shippo continued nibbling at his lunch as Xian-li dragged a resistant Inuyasha to the bathing room. Again, the panda youkai drew water for a quick bath and let the inu slip in and wash without bothering him about it, Though, he had grudgingly allowed him to help wash and oil his hair.

The trademark white hair of the inu clan was also notoriously unruly, apparently. His mother had used to wash his hair with fermented rice water and, as a pup, he had gained comfort in letting her comb through his long hair with wooden combs and Sugi oil. Since his mother’s death, Inuyasha had had to make due and kept it as clean and neat as he was able with only his claws and water. He had thought that the tendency of his hair to tangle and knot was because of this, but the panda youkai had whispered mischievously that Sesshoumaru often growled frustrated over the amount of bother his hair caused as well.

“Come, My Lord,” Xian-li called from the bedroom chambers while Inuyasha rose from his bath, insisting on privacy. “We must dress you for tonight!”

“Hey!” Inuyasha stormed, hiking up his red hakama over his white _hadajuban_ undershirt and leaving off his fire rat _suikan_ top. “I thought I told you I could dress myself! I don’t need no one pervin’ on me when I can dress myself just fine!”

For once, Inuyasha was gratified to see the ever-pleasant panda youkai splutter in surprise. He bit his lip to hold in a grin.

“Oh, My Lord Consort, I would never!” Xian-li sank to his knees and pressed his forehead to the floor. Inuyasha’s amusement drained away, now vastly uncomfortable. “Does my Lord not realize that I am an uke as well?”

That caught Inuyasha up. He gaped. “W-what? Really?”

Xian-li peaked up at him before raising his head to look the inu in the face. Seeing that he truly hadn’t known the panda youkai cautiously regained his footing. “Yes, My Lord Consort,” he said with another deep bow.

“How do I know you ain’t lyin’?” Inuyasha asked suspiciously.

Xian-li now regained his amused twinkle. “Well, My Lord Consort, I would be glad to show off my mating mark, if it pleases you. It is, however, in a rather delicate place.”

“Er,” Inuyasha blushed blazing red, and responded rather weakly, “No, Tha-that’s alright. You don’t have to.”

Xian-li used his sleeve to hide his smile. He straightened and gathered the formal robes that had been made for Inuyasha’s debut tonight. “Come, My Lord,” He said gently, “Let me help prepare for the night. I would be correct in assuming you don’t have much experience in wearing such elaborate garments?”

Inuyasha’s face contorted into a mix between a cringe and a sneer. “Fine. And you can stop with all that ‘Lord Consort’ crap!” he grumbled. “Damn nobles and their hoity-toity robes. How the hell am I supposed to move wearing all that?”

Xian-li had no answer for him but smiled at his continued grumbling. He waited patiently as Inuyasha removed his clothes, his movement’s rough with embarrassment. He searched for something to distract himself.

“So, uh, what does your mate do?” He work for Sesshoumaru too?”

“Oh, no, My Lord. He remains back in the Chinese mountains,” Xian-li answered with a gentle murmur as he helped Inuyasha into the thin white under-robe. “Once we had completed our mating period, I moved on from his territory.”

Inuyasha’s head whipped around to look at the panda youkai. “It ends? I thought it was for life!”

“Some youkai have different mating practices than others. Some are like the inu’s, wolves, and foxes in that they will take a mate and will remain with them for life.”

Inuyasha fought off the burst of disappointment that moved through him. He knew he wasn’t that lucky.

“Others, like Suki in the kitchens – she’s a snake youkai – have multiple mates at once. Suki has four mates! And she says she’s considering looking for one more!”

Inuyasha gazed up at the panda youkai with wide, innocent eyes. Four mates? That sounded like torture. Inuyasha couldn’t imagine being at the center of all that attention. Why would anyone want that?

“There are youkai that mate for a period of time, either until their pups are old enough or they simply tire of each other and then move on to find a new mate. That’s how that old kuma youkai Umeko-baasan, one of the housekeepers, does it.”

Inuyasha, shook his head in wonder. He couldn’t imagine wanting to go through all this _again_.

“Then there are those that mate, raise children or don’t, then they are done. No more mating. That’s the way of panda youkai.”

“Lucky,” Inuyasha murmured, looking up at the panda youkai from underneath his lashes.

“Oh, it is simply the way we are meant to be, just as you were meant to be mated to a strong seme and be taken care of for the rest of your life.”

Inuyasha sneered at the panda youkai and turned away. What did the big idiot know? “I don’t need that big asshole to take care of me! I’ve been taking care of myself just fine since I was pup! In fact, my life would have been a lot easier if Sesshoumaru had done the decent thing and just pretended I’d never been born! I’d have a whole lot less pain and blood loss if he had!”

Inuyasha was mildly surprised and gratified to see that Xian-li visibly considered his words as he began to brush out Inuyasha’s hair. It had been a long time since Inuyasha had felt truly listened to by someone that wasn’t Kaede-baba.

Xian-li continued to run the brush through Inuyasha’s tangled tresses as he finally answered. “While it is true that the ideal mating of the dog demons is that the uke is taken care of by the seme, it is also true that each mating is unique. It is spoken of among some youkai that the dog method, as they call it, is the most romantic and loving of the ways youkai love. It is considered by many as being the most stable with the two demons together for life to love and support one another, with the idea that two beings are inherently attracted to mates that complement each other completely. Back home on the mainland, we called it Yin and Yang. An uke would be the Yin to his seme’s Yang, the moon to his sun, and together they would become a unit more powerful and indomitable than they could ever be apart. It is why the ruling class usually tend to be made up of youkai that mate in the dog method and the monkey method, as they call the way of mating with many at once. These matings form powerful families, the dog method through unity and the monkey method through numbers.”

Inuyasha watched Xian-li in the mirror as the panda youkai spoke, rapt with the looks of concentration as the youkai deliberated carefully over every word.

“But the dog method is also said to come with the greatest disadvantages. They mate for life, as I’ve said before, and that means that if a mating is not that ideal balance, there is no option to leave and mate another. Even without the intention to mate another, instincts prevent the pair from truly separating, until well into old age, when the mating instincts decrease. The only options for a mismatched pair are to work something out or live in misery.”

Inuyasha’s puppy ears lowered in defeat. He knew it.

Xian-li clearly saw Inuyasha’s distress because he put the brush down and instead began to comfortingly stroke the soft white hair back from the Inu’s down-turned face. “What I mean to say is that you and Lord Sesshoumaru have only just mated, Inuyasha. While that perfect complimentary mating is ideal, it is also very rare and even those require a period for the two mates to get to know each other and find how they fit each other. You and the Lord seem to have had a rather antagonistic past- “

Inuyasha snorted at the very diplomatic understatement.

“-but have you considered that perhaps once you get to know each other, you will discover that you are his perfect partner? After all, you have many experiences and knowledge, growing up in the lands as you have, that Lord Sesshoumaru could never have. As I’ve said before, I have only been mated the once and it was nothing so full of strife as this, but the way I see things, the only reason you would have to live in misery would be if you and your mate did not try to work together.”

Inuyasha searched the Panda youkai’s face. The warm marigold eyes showed back at him with sincerity. Inuyasha cut his eyes away and he grunted in acknowledgment.

“Uh, so, uh does Shippo have to get all fancied up for dinner too?” he asked with a smirk when the fox kit squeaked in surprised indignation. Up until now, he had been quietly sneaking into the powders and oils that Xian-li had brought out and not yet used on Inuyasha. The kit was a mess, having been trying them out, putting the white powder on his face and his hands were slick with oil he had tried and failed to wipe off on his pants. He had thought he had gone unnoticed, but the ever vigilant Inuyasha had been aware of him the whole time.

“Oh!” Xian-li recovered from the sudden shift in topic quickly, “Oh, yes. He-” The panda youkai cut himself off with a little shriek at seeing the mess the kit had made of himself and rushed over to admonish him, Inuyasha’s laughter ringing after him.

Inuyasha tucked the conversation into the back of his mind, a little overwhelmed at all that he had learned. He would consider it carefully. Doubt about Sesshoumaru holding any interest in working to live comfortably together crowded his heart but he had overcome greater odds before. Perhaps he could chance to hope this would turn out if not well then at least tolerably in the end.


End file.
